-^
5) OFTHE
mmmm
m.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2013
http://archive.org/details/marvelsofnewwest1889thay
Marvels of the New West.
A VIVID PORTRAYAL OF THE STUPENDOUS MARVELS IN
THE VAST WONDERLAND WEST OF
THE MISSOURI RIVER.
SIX BOOKS IN ONE VOLUME,
COMPRISING
MARVELS OF NATURE, MARVELS OF RACE, MARVELS OF
ENTERPRISE, MARVELS OF MINING, MARVELS
OF STOCK-RAISING, AND MARVELS
OF AGRICULTURE,
GRAPHICALLY AND TRUTHFULLY DESCRIBED
BY
WILLIAM M. THAYER,
Author of over Twenty Standard Works, including "The White House
Series of Biographies," and "Youths' History of the
Rebellion," in 4 Vols.
ILLUSTRATED WITH OVER
THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY FINE ENGRAVINGS AND MAPS.
^>^^
NORW^ICH, CONN.:
THE HENRY BILL PUBLISHING COMPANY.
1889.
Copyright, 1887,
By William M. Thayer.
All rights reserved.
SOLD ONLY BY SUBSCRIPTION.
Electrotyped by J. S. Gushing & Co., Boston.
Presstvork by Berwick & Smith, Boston.
CONTENTS,
j>*4c
INTRODUCTION.
PACB
The New West, where and what is it ? Marvellous Boundaries ; Great
Things attempted; Capacity for Population; Average Moral Charac-
ter; No •* Far West" now; Eastern Errors about Western Life; De-
sign of this Book ; Next to Seeing ; " Wonderland " ; Testimony of
Others ; Marvels only xxvii
I.
MARVELS OF NATURE.
Rocky Mountain Scenery; Testimony of Bayard Taylor and William A.
Baillie-Grohman 3
CANONS.
The Arkansas Canon : Description and Royal Gorge ; Visit by Tourists . 5
The Black Canon : Its Character ; Curricauti's Needle ; Gateway to Price
River Canon 6
Platte Canon: Grandeur; Crookedness; Wonderful Rocks ; a Tourist's
Description 10
Boulder Canon: How to enter it ; Dome Rock 11
Clear Creek Canon : Entrance and Course ; Henry James' Description ;
Sculpture by Wind and Water ; The Double Head ; Wagon Road ; Old
Man of the Mountains ; View from Gray's Peak and James' Description ;
The Holy Cross Mountain 12
Williams' Canon : Its Location ; Rainbow Falls ; Devil's Gate ; Remark-
able Cave : More Remarkable Rock-Formations ; Dr. Taylor's Descrip-
tion ; Ute Pass ; Manitou ; Railway up Pike's Peak 17
Cheyenne Canon : Where ; The Seven Falls ; Words of a Visitor ... 26
Echo Canon: Grand Scenery; Nature's Pulpit; Description by Another;
Hanging Rock ; Devil's Slide ; Pulpit Rock 26
American Fork Canon: Picturesque and Grand ; Hippopotamus Rock . . 31
CONTENTS.
IV
PAGE
GRAND CANON OF THE COLORADO: Grandest of All; explored by United
States Government; White and Strobe Walls 6,200 Feet High; Per-
mian Butte; Pink ClifFs ; Domes and Towers ; Vishnu's Temple ... 34
MARBLE Canon: Belongs to Grand Canon; Button's Description .... 44
Kanab Canon: Belongs to Grand Canon: What Dutton says 46
Land of the Standing Rocks : Very Wonderful ; Faithful Representation, 48
Albiquh Peak : In New Mexico ; What Captain Macomb says of it . . . 48
Casa Colorado Butte: In New Mexico; examined and described by
Macomb ^
Forest of Gothic Spires: Remarkable Spectacle: as seen by Macomb . 51
The Needles: Graphic Description 5 2
Cabazon: Its Surroundings; 1,500 Feet High 53
Painted Columns ^^
Sandstone Formations : In Arizona ; Description of them by Cozzens . . 56
City of Enchantment: View by Morning Light ; Mr. Cozzen's Vivid De-
scription ; Testimony of Eye-Witnesses 5^
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.
History of its Exploration ; "Wonderland" - 59
The Mammoth Hot Springs : What they are ; described by Mr. Wisner . 60
Great Falls of the Yellowstone : Its Location ; Falls 3,000 Feet ; Grand
Scenery; Statement by Gannett ^3
Grand Canon of the Yellowstone: Magnificent Scene; described by
Dr. Wayland Hoyt 65
Obsidian Cliffs : What are they ? described by Wisner 68
Tower Falls : Surrounding Scene ; Words of the Superintendent and Lieu-
tenant Doane 7°
Kepler's Cascades : Beautiful ; described by Wisner 72
Palace Butte : An Imposing Natural Structure 72
GEYSERS.
Upper Geyser Basin 72
Old Faithful: Described by Lieutenant Doane, of the United States
Survey, and Dr. Hayden TS
Bee Hive: Whence its Name; described by Two Members of the United
States Survey ^^
The Giantess: A Mighty Spouter; Mr. Langford's Testimony .... ^^
Fan Geyser : Whence its Name ; What Lieutenant Doane and Dr. Hayden
say ; Table of Geysers ; Remarks of a Tourist about Geyser Basin and
Yellowstone Park 80
CONTENTS.
YOSEMITE VALLEY.
PAGE
Location and History 82
Cathedral Rock : Its Height ; What a Traveller says 83
El Capitan : Grand beyond Description ; Words of an Eye-Witness ... 85
Bridal Veil Fall : Beautiful ; described by Bentley 87
YosEMiTE Falls : Compared with Niagara ; Bentley's Description .... 89
Nevada Fall : Its Plunge ; described by Bentley ; Liberty Cap .... 90
Sentinel Rock : Like Obelisk ; Formation described by Ludlow .... 91
The Big Trees : Section of Big Tree ; Table of Calaveras trees ,• Stage
driven through Hole in a Tree ; Racy Account from the New West ; Pio-
neer Cabin ; Professor Whitney's Catalogue of Trees and Measurement . 93
GARDEN OF THE GODS.
Where situated 98
The Gateway : Described ; Testimony of a Traveller 99
Bear and Seal : Soldier near by, and Rocky Monster 99
The Grandmother: Words of Dr. Mary E. Blake; Words of Another . 100
Balance Rock : Description ; Profile on it ; Words of Dr. B. F. Taylor . . 102
Natural Window: Action of Water in creating these Marvels, by Profes-
sor Edwards 104
Cathedral Spires : Remarks ; Words of Fossett 106
MONUMENT PARK.
Its Location 106
Group of Monuments : Opinion of Geologists ; a Curious Incident ; a Trav-
eller's Testimony 108
The Senti-nel : Why so named 109
The Duchess: Greatest Marvel; No Exaggeration no
MISCELLANEOUS.
Shoshone Falls: Where; a Traveller's Description no
San Pedro's Wife: Near San Francisco ; a Lighthouse 113
DoNNER Lake: Its Beauty and Name 113
Multnomah Falls: Its Plunge; Description 115
Pillars of Hercules: What a Writer says 115
Pyramid Park : Remarks by Professor Denton ; Words of Another ; the
Cathedral 118
Buttes near Green River City : Remarkable Exhibition 118
yi CONTENTS.
PAGE
Palisades of Wagon Wheel Gap : Where ; Story of the Place ; Magnifi-
cent Heights 120
Castellated Rocks: In Wyoming; Extent and Grandeur 123
Rhoda's Arch 123
Grand Coulee — Imposing Spectacle 123
Valley of the Laughing Waters : In Utah ; compared with Yosemite
Valley 125
Church, Castle and Fortress: In Montana; Rare Specimen of Nature's
Handiwork 1 25
Indian Rock : In Columbia River ; Superstition of the Indians 127
The Old Woman of the Mountain: In Montana; the Region round
about it 127
Remarks on Natural Walls 128
Natural Flagstones, etc 1 29
Fishing on the Mountains: Over 11,000 Feet above the Sea; Bierstadfs
Subject; how reached 130
Petrified Forest: In Arizona; Graphic Description by Mr. Cozzens . . 131
Summit of Italian Mountain 133
Arizona Cacti described ; What Captain Button says 133
11.
MARVELS OF RACE.
The New West Oldest . . .
135
The Spaniards possessed the Land ^
Discovery of an Ancient Race
CAVE-DWELLERS.
Description of their Houses
Age and Origin . . „
* '=' 138
Cave-dwellers on McElmo
A Cave-Town restored
140
The Casa Grande, Ancient and Grand j . j
Race in the Gila Valley
Found in New Mexico
144
In Canon de Chaco
In the Rio Mancos . .
° 146
I CONTENTS. vii
CLIFF-DWELLERS.
PAGE
Their Dwellings described by Holmes 146
Dwellings in Rio San Juan, described by Jackson 150
Estufas. — Traces of Religious Rites 154
Holmes on Ruins of Southwestern Colorado 155
Heights almost Inaccessible 157
In Labyrinth Canon, and Remarks of Crofutt 158
Jackson's Discoveries in New Mexico 161
Explanation by Abbd Dominech 163
Picture-Writing on Walls 165
Explanation by Holmes 167
Ancient Pottery 16S
Remains of Human Beings 171
The Guide's Legendary Tale 171
PUEBLOS.
What?— Their History 172
Description of a Pueblo, or Town 173
Professor Zahm's Observation 177
The Race at Sante Fe 179
Three Civilizations 180
Mrs. Wallace's Observation and Description 182
Implements and Customs Like those of Palestine 183
Acoma and its Inhabitants 184
Pecos and its People 186
ZUNIS.
Frank D. Cushing among them 187
Zuni Town : Location and Description 188
Cushing's Entrance into the Town 190
Altars and Incantation Scene 193
Industrious and Intelligent 193
Thirteen Orders of Society 195
Making a Zuni of Mr. Cushing 196
Hospitable and Truthful, Dress, Antiquity 199
Their Traditions • 200
Palestine Customs here 200
Cushing's Description of a Festival 201
MOQUIS.
Like the Zunis, yet Different 206
Description of them at Home 207
viii CONTENTS.
PAGE
Living on nearly Inaccessible Heights 208
Cozzen's Visit and Personal Observations 208
MEXICANS.
Like the Pueblos 210
Some of their Habits and Customs 211
How they till the Soil 211
Mexican Women 214
The Dance and Funeral 215
Penitenties 215
Every-day Life 216
Art of making Pottery 219
III.
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
" Great American Desert " and its Perils 220
Fremont raising Flag on Rocky Mountains 224
History of Fremont's Hardships « 225
Rush to California in 1848 232
Gold-Seeking in Colorado in 1858 233
Reign of Terror among Settlers 238
Colonel Chivington's Battle with Red Men 240
A Pioneer Woman's Hardship 246
The Indian and Buffalo disappearing 253
Stage Line across the Plains 256
Progress in carrying Mails 259
The Pony Express 261
Growth of Business 264
Railroad across the Continent 266
First and Last Depot 260
What Indians thought of Railroads 271
Ten Miles built in One Day 273
United States Government vindicated 274
Growth of Population 276
RAILROADS OVER MOUNTAINS.
Through the Royal Gorge 278
Over Marshall Pass 280
Trip through Platte Canon 283
CONTENTS. ix
PAGE
Heavy Work and Timber Line 285
Through Chalk Creek Canon and Alpine Tunnel 287
Around the Palisades 291
The Runaway Train 293
Snowbound and Snow-Sheds 296
Over Veta Pass with its Wonders 300
Crossing Sangre de Christo Range and Whiplash Railway 301
Through Toltec Tunnel 305
The Garfield Monument " 308
Dogtown and Beavertown 309
Through Animas Canon 312
The Switchback and Loop 314
Over the Raton Mountains 317
The Loop at Tehachapi Pass 317
Rounding Cape Horn 318
American River Canon and the Calumet Railroad 320
Railway Hospitals 323
Missouri River and Marant Gulch Railroad Bridge 324
Mammoth Ferry-Boat 327
PUBLIC BUILDINGS.
Omaha, Nebraska : Buildings show Enterprise ; School-House ; Court-
House 329
Portland, Oregon : View of it, and Business ; High School ; Newspapers ;
Business Block; Contrast; State-House; Insane Asylum 332
Tacoma, W. T. : Thrift; Hotel; Business Blocks ; House of Worship; Sem-
inary; School-House 337
Butte City, Montana: Business Boom; View of City; Court-House;
Churches; Schools; Helena 341
Idaho : Origin of Name ; View of Boise City ; Capitol Square 345
Cheyenne, Wyoming: Early History; School-House 350
First and Last Capitol of Kansas 351
Gunnison City, Colorado : Magic Growth ; Costly Hotel 351
Denver, Colorado : Desert and Garden ; Growth and Business ; Union
Depot; First and Last Capitol; Tabor Opera House; Windsor Hotel;
Superior Public Schools; Dr. Philbrick's Testimony; High School Build-
ing ; Libraries ; Private Schools ; Churches 355
GROWTH OF COLONIES.
Greeley, Colorado : Its History, by Cameron ; Foundation Principles ; High
School ; First Place of Worship ; First and Last Hotel ; Business Blocks
.- CONTENTS.
PAGE
and Business; Anti-Saloon Measure ; Life of Meeker; Capture of Mrs.
Meeker and Daughter 367
Colorado Springs : The Antlers ; Location and Description of the Town ;
College 389
THE PACIFIC SLOPE.
San Francisco, California : Gold and Business ; Progress of the City ; State
Capitol ; City Hall ; Palace Hotel ; Lick Observatory ; Palatial Residen-
ces ; Remarkable Health Resorts ; a Hundred Years from Now . . . 391
THE MORMON SETTLEMENT.
Great Business Enterprise ; Description of Salt Lake City ; Thrift in Agri^
culture 404
RAILROAD KINGS.
Brief Biographies: Oakes Ames; Oliver Ames; C. P. Huntington;
Charles Crocker; Leland Stanford; Sidney Dillon; David H. Moffat, 406
IV.
MARVELS OF MINING.
Discovery of Gold by Marshall in 1848 429
Captain Sutter and the End 430
Richness of the Mines 431
Remarkable Increase of Population 433
Immense Fortunes realized ^-.r
Industrial Mining Exposition 435
The Prospector , . . . . 4.-38
Intelligence and Tact Indispensable 440
Stumbling upon Mines ^2
Placer Mining ^
Gulch Mining
*=> 449
Hydraulic Mining
* • 449
Lode Mining
"^ 450
Drift Mining
,...'' 451
Gomg mto a Mine
Weights, Values, and Measurements ..^
Reduction of Ores : Stamp Mill ; Quartz Mill 4^0
Smelting ^
* 462
CONTENTS. xi
PAGE
Leadville: Its Sudden Growth. — Location. — Hotel. — Art Palace. —
Appearance of City. — Business. — Schools and School-Houses. — Its
Bullion Output. — Origin of the Gold-Find. — Bonanza Mines. — Mines
Inexhaustible 463
Profits of Mining 478
Leading Mines of Colorado 479
The Mariposa Estate • 480
The Mother Lode 483
Richest Mines in California 484
Nuggets 487
Arizona: Silver-Bearing. — Apaches hinder. — Great Mines 490
Dakota, and its Richest Mines 493
Idaho and its Wealthy Mines 494
Montana, and its Wonderful Bullion Product 496
Nevada: Its Harvest of Silver. — The Famous Comstock Lode, and its
Fabulous Yield 500
New Mexico : Present Mining Output and Future Promise 503
Utah : Wealth of its Gold and Silver Mines. — Rich Iron Mines .... 506
Wyoming: Gold. — Copper. — Coal 509
Oregon and Washington: Estimate of the Director of the United States
Mint 511
Product of Precious Metals in the New West 512
Will the Mines fail ? 514
Additional Facts and Statistics 514
Gems 520
Morals of Mining Camps 520
Mining Kings: Horace A. W. Tabor, John L. Routt, John P. Jones, James
G. Fair, Jerome B. Chaffee, Nathaniel P. Hill, J. F. Matthews . . . 524
V.
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING.
Paradise of Stock-Raisers: Immense Herds of the New West. — Acres of
Grazing Lands. — How it was from 1850-70. 535
What Cattle eat : Description of the Grasses ^ 538
The Cattle Ranch: How to get one. — Cattle on the Range. — The
Stockman on Duty 541
Profits of Stock-Raising : Estimate by Dakota Editor. — Hayes. — Fosset.
— One Cow's Family. — Estimate by Clark and Ulm. — Whigham. —
Other Estimates and Facts. — A Scotchman's Estimate. — Dressed Beef, 547
^.^ CONTENTS.
PAGE
The Cowboy: Not understood. — His Defence by the Oregon Editor.—
An Incident 5^1
The Round-up: What it is, and where. — Citizen joining the Round-up.—
Description by a Kansas Ranchman. — Perils of the Round-up. — De-
scription of Horses used. — Cattle-Brands. —" Cutting Out." — Brand-
ing Calves. — Beef Round-up. — Driving Cattle to Railroad. — " Blabbing
Calves." — The Chicago Stockyards. — Cattle in Extreme Cold. —The
Enemies of Cattle and Horses. — The Herd and Prairie Fire .... 568
The Sheep Ranch: Extent of the Business. — Estimate of Profits by
Hayes. — By Idaho Official. — By Fossett. — In Montana. — In Kansas.
— Other Facts. — Breeds. — Shearing. — Sheep on Union Pacific Rail-
road.—Life on Sheep Ranch. — Incidents on a Ranch. — Latest Sheep
Rack. — Sheep thrive in all lands 594
A Woman on a Cattle Ranch 608
Cattle Kings: John H. Iliff, Jared L. Brush, Charles Lux, R. G. Head,
Thomas H. Lawrence, John W. Snyder, John T. Lytle 616
VI.
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
The Facts too Large for Belief 628
Now, the Facts not Large enough 630
Current Reports from Journals of the Day 631
Methods of Agriculture: How a Farm of 30,000 Acres is plowed. —
Steam-Plowing. — History of Wheat-Harvesting. — Seeding Wheat. —
Wonders of Harvesting. — Words of Another. — Threshing by Steam. —
Wheat and Blizzards. — Real Facts about Land " Unfit for Cultivation " . 637
Kansas: The Hub. — The Geographical Centre. — " Corn is King." — Sound
Corn. — Facts about Wheat. — The Status of Oats and Other Products.
— Income and Value of Farms. — The Floral Wealth of Kansas. —
Broom Corn. — Tree-Planting 649
Nebraska: Originates "Arbor Day." — Generous Laws. — Her Example
Contagious. — United States Government Aids 658
Railroad Companies planting Trees 659
Montana: Pioneer Farmers and their Success. — What Agricultural Bureau
says. — Strahom on Montana, with Figures that won't lie 662
Dakota : An Empire. — Exhibit at New Orleans. — Words of E. V. Smalley.
— A Great Wheat Farm. — The Dalrymple Farm of 75,000 Acres. —
Amusing and Instructive Letter. — A Stubborn Fact 671
CONTENTS. xiii
PAGE
Idaho: Its Great Resources. — How 300,000 Acres are opened to Settlers.
— Testimony of Two Eye-Witnesses 678
California: The Cornucopia of the World. — Its Two Seasons. — Remark-
able Growths. — Words of Nordhoif. — Hop- Raising. — Raisin-Making.
— Wine-Making. — Orange Culture. — Alfalfa. — Miscellaneous Facts . 682
Colorado: Its Agricultural Domain. — Marvellous Parks. — Testimony of
Farmers in San Luis Park. — Reports of Immense Products 695
Arizona : Its Large Area of Fertile Land. — Report of Several Experiments.
— Other Facts 698
Wyoming and Washington : Proofs of Fertility. — Letter of a Resident . 699
Irrigation: Its Advantage. — Remarks of a Writer. — Ditch in Kansas. —
Irrigation by Flooding. — Great Land Scheme. — Irrigating in San Luis
Park. — Extent of Irrigation in Colorado, with J. Max Clark's Description
of it. — Cost of Irrigation. — Irrigating an Orchard in California. —
Underground Irrigation 702
CONCLUSION.
What we have seen. — God in this History. — Why Pilgrims landed on a
Rock and not on a Gold Mine. — Greatest Christian Nation meant. —
Result if Gold instead of Granite. — View of A. Carnegie. — The
New West paying our Debt. — American Credit higher than English. —
The New West will decide our Destiny. — Anglo-Saxon Race to rule. —
One Language and Purpose. — Remarks of Herbert Spencer. — Intem-
perance. — Mormonism and Other Isms. — Power of Liberty, Education,
and Christianity „ . 710
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
:>>^c
PORTRAITS.
PAGE
Railroad Kings : Oakes Ames, Oliver Ames, C. P. Huntington, Charles
Crocker, Leland Stanford, Sidney Dillon, David H. Moffat 407
Mining Kings : Horace A. W. Tabor, John L. Routt, John F. Jones, James
G. Fair, Jerome B. Chaffee, Nathaniel P. Hill, J. F. Matthews .... 523
Cattle Kings : John H. Iliff, Jared L. Brush, Charles Lux, R. G. Head,
Thomas H. Lawrence, John W. Snyder, John T. Lytle 623
I. MARVELS OF NATURE.
Frontispiece.
Grand Canon of the Arkansas 4
The Royal Gorge 5
The Black Canon 7
Curricauti's Needle 8
Castle Gate 9
Rift in the Rocks 10
Dome Rock 12
The Double Head 13
The Old Man of the Mountains 14
Gray^s Peak 15
Mount of the Holy Cross 17
Williams' Canon 18
Rainbow Falls 19
Devil's Gate 20
Cave of the Winds 21
Castle Rock 22
Pillar of Jupiter 22
Freight Teams climbing Ute Pass 23
Manitou and Pike's Peak 24
Pike's Peak Railway 26
The Seven Falls 27
Pulpit Rock 28
xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS,
% PAGE
Hanging Rock 29
DeviPs Slide 3°
Pulpit Rock 32
Hippopotamus Rock 33
Climbing the Grand Canon of the Colorado 34
Permian Butte 3^
Vermilion Cliffs 38
Pink Cliffs 40
Dome and Towers 4^
Vishnu's Temple 43
Marble Canon 45
Land of the Standing Rocks 46
Kanab Canon 47
Albiquiu Peak 48
Casa Colorado Butte 50
Forest of Gothic Spires 51
The Needles 52
Cabazon 53
Painted Columns 54
Natural Sandstone Formations 55
A City not made with Hands 57
Mammoth Hot Springs 61
Great Falls of the Yellowstone 64
Grand Canon of the Yellowstone 66
Obsidian Cliffs 68
Tower Falls 69
Kepler's Cascades on the Firehole River 71
Palace Butte 7'3
Old Faithful Geyser 74
Bee Hive Geyser 76
The Giantess Geyser 78
Fan Geyser 70
Cathedral Rock 2>a.
Bridal Veil Fall 85
El Capitan g^
Yosemite Falls 88
Liberty Cap ^0
Sentinel Rock gj
Section of a Big Tree q.
Stage Line ^^
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xvil
PAGE
Pioneer Cabin 96
Gateway to the Garden of the Gods 99
Bear and Seal 100
The Grandmother loi
Balance Rock 102
Window in a Rock 104
Cathedral Spires 105
Monument Park 107
Group of Monuments 108
The Sentinel 109
The Duchess no
Shoshone Falls in
San Pedro's Wife; or, The Woman of the Period 112
Donner Lake 114
Multnomah Falls 115
Pillars of Hercules ii6
Pyramid Park Ii8
Green River City and Buttes 119
Wagon Wheel Gap 120
Rhoda's Arch 121
Castellated Rocks 122
Grand Coulee 123
The Valley of the Laughing Waters 124
Indian Rock 125
Church, Castle, and Fortress 126
Old Woman of the Mountain 127
Forms of Walls 129
Fishing on the Mountains 130
Petrified Forest 131
Summit of Italian Mountain 132
Arizona Cacti 133
II. MARVELS OF RACE.
Cave-Town near the San Juan 138
Ancient Cave-Dwellings on the McElmo 139
A Cave-Town Restored 141
The Casas Grandes in 1859 '42
A Tower in McElmo Valley 143
Ruins in the Canon de Chaco 145
Restored Tower and Cliff-Houses 147
xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
House in a Rock of Montezuma Canon 149
Two-Storied Cliff-House 150
Cliff-House on the Mancos I53
Ground Plan of Last-Named Cliff-House 1 54
Cliff-Dwellings, Mancos Canon 155
Cliff-House in the Canon de Chelly 156
Cliff-Dwellings, Southern Colorado 159
Cliff and Cliff-Houses 160
Ground Plan of the Pueblo Bonito in' the Chaco Canon 162
A Pueblo restored by Lieutenant Simpson 164
El Moro, or Inscription Rock o . . 166
Rock Inscriptions 167
Vases found on the Banks of the San Juan 169
Fragments of Pottery 169
A Drinking- Vessel from Zuni 170
A Drinking- Vessel from Old Zuni 170
Photograph of a Human Skull found One Hundred and Thirty Feet Deep in
the Earth 171
Pueblo of Laguna 174
Pueblo of Taos, New Mexico 175
Adobe Oven 177
The Oldest House in the United States 178
The Adobe Palace 179
The Oldest Church in America 181
Pueblo and Cart 183
Primitive Agriculture 184
Burro loaded with Wood 184
An Ancient Wheelbarrow 185
Acoma igc
Pecos 186
Zuiii 189
Zuni Altars and Incantation Scene 102
Zuni Vegetable Garden lo^
Zuni Farm-House jo^
The Moquis Pueblos 208
Life in New Mexico 210
Mexican Cart and Plough 211
Mexican Flour-Mill 212
Adobe Fireplace ^ 213
Mexican Pottery . «... 218
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xix
III. MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
PAGE
Raising the Flag , . . 223
Encountering the Blizzard , . 227
Leaving the Weak to Die . 229
Over the Plains then ^ , . . 233
Lightning Express 234
Crossing the Plains with a Hand-Cart 236
Perils of D. C. Oakes 337
Capture of Spotted Horse 238
Perils by Indians 240
Mrs. Tabor's Cabin 247
Crossing the Plains now , 254
Herd of Buffalo stopping the Train 255
Stage attacked by Indians 257
Snow Skates 260
Pony Express Station 262
Pony Express in Mountain Storm 263
Fargo and Wells Express . 264
Fifty-four Thousand Pounds 265
Driving the Last Spike 267
First Office 269
Central Pacific Depot 270
Indians' First View of the Cars 271
Locating the Line 278
Marshall Pass 282
Head of South Park 284
Stage Line over Mosquito Pass 285
Near Breckenridge on Way to Leadville 286
Above Timber Line 287
Chalk Creek Canon 288
Scene in South Park 289
Around the Palisades 291
The Runaway Train 293
Uncompahgre Peaks 295
Snow Galleries, Sierra Nevada Mountains 296
Interior of Snow-Sheds , . . . . 297
The Great Snow-Plough 298
Railroad above the Clouds 300
Crossing Sangre de Christo Range 301
Fort Garland 302
XX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
The Whiplash 303
Lot's Wife 304
Phantom Curve 305
Toltec Tunnel 306
West End of the Toltec Tunnel 307
Garfield Monument 308
Dogtown 309
Beavertown 310
Canon of the Rio Las Animas 311
Animas Canon and Needles 313
The High Line Road between Black Hawk and Central City 314
The Loop 315
Crossing the Raton Mountains 316
The Loop, Tehachapi Pass 318
Over Tunnel and Loop 310
Rounding Cape Horn 320
American River Canon 321
Central Pacific Railroad Hospital 323
Marent Gulch Bridge 32c
Steamer " Solano
328
High School Building, Omaha 330
Court-House 33 j
High School Building, Portland ->->-,
Portland, Oregon ^^r
The Kamm Block ^^5
State House ^^-
Insane Asylum --g
The Tacoma Hotel
339
Butte City ^.^
Court-House
343
Boise City ^^^
Capitol Square g
Central School Building
First Capitol of Kansas -j.^
Last Capitol of Kansas -^
Gunnison in 1879
La Veta Hotel, Gunnison _-^
^^ . 35^
Union Depot g
First Capitol of Colorado
Last Capitol of Colorado ^^
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, XXI
PAGE
Tabor Grand Opera House 361
Windsor Hotel 362
High School, Denver 365
High School Building, Greeley, Colorado 372
First Place of Worship 373
First Hotel 374
Last Hotel — The " Oasis " 374
Business Block 376
Meeker and his Home 379
Captivity of Mrs. Meeker and Daughter 384
The Antlers 389
Colorado College 390
State Capitol 393
City Hall 394
Palace Hotel 395
Residence of Charles Crocker 397
Lick Observatory 398
Hotel del Monte, Monterey 400
The Raymond 401
Hotel, Las Vegas Hot Springs 402
Assembly Hall, Tabernacle, and Temple, Salt Lake 405
Monument in Memory of Oakes Ames and Oliver Ames 416
IV. MARVELS OF MINING.
Sutter's Mill 432
Off for the Mines 433
Industrial Exposition Building 437
Prospectors 438
Gold-Digger and Deer 442
Mine Locomotive 443
Finding Gold by Accident 444
Placer Mining 445
The Rocker 447
Gulch Mining 448
Gulch Mining, Idaho 449
Flume 450
Lode Mining 451
Underground Railroad 452
Veins of Gold 453
Going into a Mine 454
xxii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Sloping 456
Rock-Boring Winch 458
Ten-Stamp Quartz Mill 459
Smelting Works at Argo 461
Gold and Silver 462
A Ton of Pure Silver 463
Tabor Grand 465
Looking West from Printer Boy Hill 467
Fryer Hill 471
Sugar Loaf Mountain 473
Drifting and Shaft Sinking 477
Red Mountain 498
Lake Valley Smelting Works 504
V. MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING.
Buffalo Grasses 539
Kansas Grasses 540
Home on a Cattle Ranch 541
Home on a Cattle Ranch 542
A Dug-Out 542
Herd on the Range 544
Off for the Ranch 545
Prairie Post-Office . , 546
Tarantula Nest 547
Cattle Seeking Water ^48
A Cowboy ^61
Cowboy off for the Range p52
Death of a Hero r(^r
Stopping a Stampede ' -53
Group of Cowboys c^q
The "Round-Up" rno
Starting a Laundry r^2
Picking up a Coin ^^.
Grub Wagon for the " Round-Up "' c^r
Preparing for the Night-Herd r-j-j
A Bucking Horse 570
Cattle Brand -g^
Roping and Cutting Out -3j
Branding Calves ' C82
Chasing a Calf g
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xxill
PAGE
Chicago Stockyards 586
Hauling a Cow from tlie Mire 590
A Prairie Fire , 592
Slieep Ranch 595
Captain Jack 602
Sheep-Shearing 602
Bagging Wool for Transportation 603
Counting Sheep 605
The Runaway Lamb 606
A Novel Sheep-Rack 607
Going to the Ranch 609
Their Ranch Home 611
Climbing the Butte 613
VI. MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
Sulkey Plough 629
Corn in the Kaw Valley, Kansas 630
Millet — Six Weeks' Growth 632
King of Harrows . . . , 634
Ploughing on a Bonanza Farm 636
Steam Gang Plough 637
Harrowing on a Bonanza Farm 638
Seeding on a Bonanza Farm 639
Harvesting on a Bonanza Farm 641
Steam Header 642
The Steam Thresher 644
McCormick's New Reaper 645
Broadcast Sower 648
Two-Rowed Corn-Planter 652
Empire Grain-Drill 653
Sunflowers 656
Broom Corn " 657
Pioneer Farmer's Home in Montana 661
Pleasant View Farm 663
Albino Park Farm 665
Cart-Spreader , 666
Hay-Tedder 667
Automatic Stacker and Gatherer 669
Pioneer Home in Dakota 670
A Dakota Wheat Farm 672
xxiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
California Farm House 683
Hop Farm 685
California Vineyard 689
Bee Culture 691
California Orange Grove 693
Logging near Olympia 701
Fish Wheel on the Columbia 702
Irrigating ^o-i,
Headgate , . . 706
Irrigating an Orchard c c 708
MAPS AND DIAGRAMS.
The New West as it was 220
The New West as it is * 221
Alignment of the D. & R. G. Railroad over Marshall Pass, Colorado ... 281
Geographical Centre of the United States 649
Irrigating in Idaho 680
Method of Irrigating c . . . . 704
AUTHORS CONSULTED.
y^^c
United States Geological and Geographical Survey of Colorado and
Adjacent Territories. By F. V. Hayden.
United States Geological Survey. J. W. Powell, Director. Second Annual
Report, 1880 and 1881.
Atlas of Monographs and History of Grand Canon of Colorado. By
Major Button.
United States Geological Explorations. By Clarence King.
United States Geological Survey. By Lieutenant Wheeler, of Corps of Engi-
neers. Vol. III., 1875.
United States Report on Dakota. By Lieutenant Warren.
United States Survey of Idaho, Montana, etc.
United States Report on Nevada and Arizona.
Exploring Expedition from Sante Fe to Junction of Grand and Green
Rivers, 1859. By Major Macomb.
United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Rocky Moun-
tain Region. Contribution to Ethnology. J. W. Powell, Director. Vol. IV.,
1881.
Mining Statistics West of the Rocky Mountains. By R. H. Raymond,
United States Commissioner of Mining.
Eleventh Annual Report of the United States Geological and Geo-
graphical Survey of Idaho and Wyoming, 1877. ^y F. V. Hayden.
Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. By J. W. Powell.
United States Census for 1880.
Reports to United States Government on Mineral Resources of the
United States. By J. Ross Browne.
Bulletins of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of
the Territories. By F. V. Hayden. Vols. I. and II.
Seventh Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey for
1873. By F. V. Hayden.
Tenth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey for 1876.
By F. V. Hayden.
xxvi AUTHORS CONSULTED.
Expedition to Great Salt Lake of Utah. By H. Star.sbury, Captain ot
Topographical Engineers of United States Army.
Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi, Arkansas, Kansas, and La
PLi^TTE Rivers. By Major Z. M. Pope.
Native Races of the Pacific Coast of North America. By Herbert Howe
Bancroft.
History of the United States. By George Bancroft.
Prehistoric America. By the Marquis de Nadailac.
Atlantis ; the Antediluvian World. By Ignatius Donelley.
History of the Northern Pacific Railroad. By E. V. Smalley.
Reports of the Director of the Mint. Washington. D.C.
Prehistoric Times as illustrated by Ancient Ruins, etc. By Sir John
Lubbock.
Resources of Arizona. By P. Hamilton.
Tales of the Colorado Pioneers. By Alice Polk Hill.
The Resources of the Rocky Mountains. By E. J. Farmer.
The Union Pacific Tourist. By the Company.
Reports of the State Boards of Agriculture of Kansas, Nebraska,
Colorado, and California.
Artesian Wells on the Great Plains. By Department of Agriculture, Wash-
ington.
Number and Value of Farm Animals. By Department of Agriculture, Wash-
ington.
Reports of National Convention of Cattlemen for 1884 and 1885.
Reports of the Chamber of Commerce of Denver and San Francisco.
The Mining Industry. By Mining Association of Denver.
California as it is. By San Francisco Call Company.
Report of the Wyoming Stock-Growers' Association.
Bits of Travel at Home. By H. H.
Resources of Colorado. By J. Alden Smith, State Geologist.
Leadville. By L. A. Kent.
Reports of the Public Schools of Kansas City, Omaha, Denver, San
Francisco, etc.
The Wonderland Route to Pacific Coast. By Northern Pacific Railroad.
Illustrated New Mexico. By M. G. Ritch.
Colorado. By Frank Fossett.
Montana and Yellowstone Park. By Robert E. Strahorn.
Gunnison, Colorado's Bonanza County. By John K. Hallowell, Geologist.
History of Oregon and California. By Robert Greenhouse.
History of Oregon. By Dr. William Barrows.
History of Kansas. By Professor Spring,
AUTHORS CONSULTED. . xxvii
Bachelder's Resources of Dakota.
Plains of the Great West. By R. I. Dodge.
Adventures in the Apache Country. By J. Ross Browne.
Mines of Colorado. By O. J. Hollister.
Thirty Years' Residence with Indian Tribes. By H. R. Schoolcrait.
The Tourist's Overland Guide. By George A. Crofutt.
Grip-Sack Guide of Colorado. By George A. Crofutt.
The New West. By Charles Loring Brace.
The Aztecs. From the French of L. Biaut. By J. L. Garner.
Camps in the Rocky Mountains. By William A. Baillie-Grohman.
Colorado. By Bayard Taylor.
Heart of the Continent. By Fritz Hugh Ludlow.
The Yosemite Guide-Book. Professor J. D. Whitney, State Geologist ot L.aii-
fornia.
The Yellowstone National Park. By H. J. Wisner.
Handbook of the Pacific Coast. By William R. Bentley.
The Crest of the Continent. By Ernest Ingersoll.
Wonders of the Yellowstone. By James Richardson.
A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains. By Isabella L. Bird.
Three Years in Arizona and New Mexico. By S. W. Cozzens.
Resources of California. By John S. Hittell.
New Colorado and the Sante Fe Trail. By A. A. Hayes, Jr.
Life of Kit Carson. By J. S. C. Abbott.
Life of John C. Fremont. By G. W. Upham.
The Rocky Mountain Saints. By T. B. H. Stenhouse.
First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Reports of the State Mineral-
ogist OF California. By Henry G. Hanks.
El Dorado. By Bayard Taylor.
Holmes' United States Report on Ancient Races in Southwestern Col-
orado. 1875 ^r^d 1876.
Jackson's United States Report on Ancient Races. 1877.
Mining Camps. By Charles Howard Shinn.
Comstock's History of the Precious Metals.
Stewart's Irrigation.
Hydraulic Mining in California. By A. J. Browne.
Resources of Montana. By J. S Harris and W. A. Clark, Commissoners.
Oregon and Washington. By Northern Pacific Railroad Company.
Spaulding on Public Lands.
Scribner's Statistical Atlas.
INTRODUCTION.
>>«<«
T^HE NEW WEST — where is it? what is it? That portion of
^ our great country lying between the Missouri River and the
Pacific Ocean, embracing the States and Territories of Kansas,
Nebraska, Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Idaho, Ore-
gon, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and California.
Of itself a mighty empire ! This New West contains more than half
the territory of our entire country. The territorial measurement of
the United States, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, is 3,025,600
square miles. The States and Territories of the New West embrace
1,532,142 square miles of it, which is 19,342 square miles more than
one-half. Its magnitude is a marvel. How few people from Maine
to Ohio have supposed that more than one-half of the area of their
country lies between the Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean !
Without stopping to consult the map, or the Bureau of Statistics,
they have been indulging the thought that "the jumping-off place"
was not far west of the Mississippi. Reliable information concern-
ing the New West is of so recent date that the mass of the people
in the East are not posted as to the actual facts. *' Facts are stranger
than fiction " is a sentiment especially applicable to this unsettled,
but rapidly settling part of our land. Were some well-posted
citizen of the New West to present the actual facts about that
domain to the inhabitants of the Eastern States, a multitude of
hearers would denounce him as a liar, or pity him for possessing
more imagination than judgment. It is because so much of the
truly marvellous is interwoven with the history and present status
of that Eldorado.
XXX MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
To recur again to territorial limits. The country east of the
Mississippi is divided into States so small, comparatively, that their
inhabitants are not prepared to appreciate the magnitude of the States
and Territories west of the ''Father of waters." They are so accus-
tomed to States containing from two thousand to fifty thousand square
miles, that they are quite unprepared to comprehend the more distant
ones, three and four times as large. Kansas is almost ten times larger
than Massachusetts, nearly seventeen times larger than Connecticut,
sixty-five times larger than Rhode Island ; and its area more than
equals the combined area of all the New England States, with Mary-
land and Delaware added. Colorado is twelve times larger than
Massachusetts, and twenty-six times larger than Connecticut. One
hundred Rhode Islands can be set down upon its 104,500 square
miles. One of its counties (Gunnison) is larger than Massachusetts
and Rhode Island combined. It has four magnificent parks, situated
in the mountains, from seven thousand to nine thousand feet above
the sea, the smaller of which is equal to two Rhode Islands ; and
the State of Massachusetts could be set within the larger. These
four parks contain as many acres as Massachusetts, Connecticut,
and Rhode Island together. Arizona, New Mexico, Montana,
Nevada, Dakota, and California are larger than Colorado. California
is twenty-two times larger than Massachusetts, nearly three times
as large as all the New England States, and its area exceeds the
united area of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Mary-
land. Eighteen Massachusetts can be put into Dakota, with ample
room left to receive the little State of Rhode Island. Montana is
almost as large as Dakota, and can spread seventeen Massachusetts
and one Rhode Island over its ample surface. New Mexico, Arizona,
and Nevada are not much behind their gigantic neighbors ; for their
united territory is equal to one-tenth of our entire national domain,
and more than equal to the combined area of New York, Pennsyl-
vania, New Jersey, Maryland, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and South
Carolina, together with all the New England States.
These are marvellous boundaries ; and they represent the grand
scale upon which our New Western country is laid out, as well as the
INTRODUCTION, xxxi
magnitude of its social, commercial, and educational enterprises.
Nothing is done there in a small way. Human plans are as large as
the States. Nothing is too large or too difficult to be undertaken.
Enterprises are prodigious. The amount of business is almost in-
credible. Enormous contracts, enormous profits, enormous losses,
are the order of the day. " Do you pretend to say that nothing is
impossible in the work of constructing railways } " inquired a lawyer
in a Colorado court of a witness who was a railroad official. *' I
pretend to say," replied the witness, "that, give us a starting-point,
and the objective point to be reached, with a railroad company having
a plenty of money behind, we will reach it." It is on such a magnificent
scale that things are done in the New West. Nothing narrow or
picayune, but broad and large ! " Our railroad company wants to
borrow fifty milliojis,'' said a railway official in our hearing. Fifty
MILLIONS ! That fairly represents the magnitude of Western work.
Men make money by the million, and sometimes they lose it by the
million, though not often. They aspire to the largest business, the
greatest triumphs of human effort, and the quickest possible results.
Hence, the handsomest and richest city, the best school system, the
finest public buildings, and the most wonderful growth are found on
what was but recently " The Great American Desert." Given
enterprise on a grand scale, and even the "desert will blossom as
the rose ! "
Marvels are constantly multiplying in the New West. Surprises
are as common there as commonplace is in the East. The rapid in-
crease of its population is as great a marvel as a canon, or a railroad
over Marshall Pass. The time is coming when the population west
of the Missouri River will exceed the population east of it. Kansas
can accommodate thirty millions of people without being crowded
more than Massachusetts will be fifty years from now. Colorado can
support more than Kansas ; and so can Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and
Oregon. Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico have room for forty
millions each. Dakota and Montana can maintain sixty millions
each, and California exceed both of them in the number of its in-
habitants. Nebraska and Washington Territory will fall little behind
xxxii MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
Kansas in capacity for population. It is not without authority, then,
that some statisticians claim that the United States can support in
the future, when her wonderful resources have had time to develop,
a population of 3,600,000,000 — more than twice the number of
people now dwelling on the face of the earth ! The New West, with
its larger territory, its inexhaustible mines of gold, silver, copper,
lead, iron, and coal, its richer lands, more genial and healthier climate,
its grander scenery and irrepressible spirit of enterprise, must com-
mand its full share of these teeming millions. Its influence must
become potent to determine, if not to control, the destiny of our
great Republic. As will be its domestic, social, intellectual, moral,
and Christian character, so will be the power and perpetuity of our
national government. The nation will rise or fall with the New
West. The latter's increasing wealth and enterprise must exert a
controlling influence upon our political history. The minds that
manage and drive there, must prove more or less potential at the
seat of government. Mind is master everywhere : and mind that is
the life and soul of Western enterprise, thrift, and greatness, must
become masterful in the councils of the nation. Time only is neces-
sary to settle the matter ; and time is always an element of success
or failure.
Large numbers of Eastern people suppose that even now the " Far
West," as they call the New West, is a rude, rough, half-civilized
frontier, where men who escape the Indian scalping-knife may fall by
the shot of the desperado. They are not prepared for the statement
that the average society of the New West will compare favorably
with that of New England, and that the most dangerous elements of
humanity in Western cities, and even in mining towns, is not so bad
as the lowest vicious classes of New York and other Eastern cities.
But it is even so. That the present population between Missouri
River and the Pacific Ocean will compare favorably with that of
Eastern States in virtue and intelligence, is a marvel ; and the cause
is to be found in Eastern influences. New England is found through-
out the New West ; it is everywhere. Go where he will, the traveller
is continually reminded of New England institutions and society.
INTRODUCTION. xxxiii
New England laid the foundations there ; and New England is rear-
ing the walls and getting them ready for the cap-stone. State capi-
tols, court-houses, hotels, city halls, opera houses, universities, school
buildings, and houses of worship are like those of Massachusetts,
only better. The children's love and memory of home reproduce the
institutions of their childhood, made more conspicuous by modern
improvements. So the New West becomes the rival of the East.
We have used the phrase " Far West," but really there is no such
locality now. We travelled ten thousand miles in ''the Rocky Moun-
tain region," but failed to find the " Far West." We scarcely escaped
from the East. "Are you from the East V inquired a stranger of us
in Colorado. "Yes, just arrived," we answered. "And so am I
from the East," responded my questioner. "May I ask you what
part of the East you came from V we continued. " From Iowa," he
said. So I found that "far west " is east out there.
Over the range on the Pacific Slope, at Gunnison City, a gentleman
accosted us in a familiar, genial way, —
" Stranger, are you from the East } "
"Yes, sir; and I expect to return there soon."
" I hope you will carry a good report of us back, for I come from
the East," he added pleasantly.
" Most certainly I shall, for I am really smitten with this new
country," we answered. "And what part of the East are you from.-*"
"Kansas," he replied, to our surprise. "I came here for my health
three years ago. I am not yet well, though much improved ; and I
may yet find it necessary to go west."
We gave it up — there is no West really ; the country has become
mostly East. The East dogged our steps everywhere ; and the West,
like some ignis fatinis of the meadow, receded from our view as we
journeyed on. The waggish Coloradean was less a wag than he
supposed, when he said, " The West ! the West ! Why, the West is
kicked 'over the range' into the Pacific Ocean." Whether true or
not, we saw no one who admitted that he had reached the West. At
the most distant point we struck, men were goi^ig West. We can
say with another tourist, that the further we went, the more wc were
xxxiv MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
strengthened in the belief that the wise men did come from the East.
Whether the East is Westernized, or the West Easternized, is a
question the reader must settle in his own mind.
In travelling over the New West we found ample proof of the
incorrect ideas concerning it prevailing in the East. When news of
the massacre of Mr. Meeker and his co-workers, by the Ute Indians,
reached the Eastern States, large numbers of terrified fathers and
mothers, wives and sisters, and other friends, wrote to their kindred
to hasten home. They seemed to think that the country beyond
the Missouri River was a narrow belt over which a single tribe of
Indians in arms could sweep in bloody triumph. They did not know
but that the massacre occurred at the very door of their relatives'
habitations. The friends might have been living in Montana or
Nebraska, or California ; they did not know that it was not all the
same as Colorado, where the butchery occurred. An Eastern man
sickened and died in Denver, and the tidings of his decease were
transmitted to his family friends, the most afflicted of whom immedi-
ately wrote to inquire whether there were neighbors to render him
necessary aid. The intelligence was returned, "he had about y^r/>'
thousand neighbors," which was the population of Denver at that
time. Friends had no idea that he was dwelling in one of the most
marvellous cities on the continent. They appeared to think that,
dwell where he might, he must be isolated, and destitute of those
comforts which a dying man ought to command. Ten years ago a
young man from New England was travelling horseback in the New
West for his health. Tramps were in their glory and strength in
the East, at that time ; so that, when his letter came describing his
journeying alone from place to place, his parents, though intelligent
people, were very much alarmed ; and they spoiled a whole sheet of
paper in communicating to him their fears, closing their well-meant
counsel by emphasizing, "Beware of Tramps!" They were not a
little surprised to receive an answer, in due time, " No Tramps
Here ! " As tramps were then the principal scare in New England,
they supposed that they must be a greater scare in the " Far West."
Four years after the rush to Leadville, a Connecticut gold-seeker
INTRODUCTION-. xxxv
cast his fortunes with that crowd. His parents forwarded to him by
mail various mailable articles, which they supposed could not be
purchased in that distant mining camp. They were very much
surprised, however, to receive the following answer to their inquiry,
"Can you buy rubber boots there?" "Yes, pianos if I want."
Pianos in a mining camp, more than two thousand miles away, was
the last thing they had dreamed of ; and they very wisely concluded
that their knowledge of the Western country was somewhat limited.
Now, this book is designed to enlighten those who have never
visited the New West. To make it "next to seeing," a large
number of pictorial illustrations are introduced, without which it is
quite impossible for this class to appreciate its marvels. No person
can understand a canon by merely looking at a stereopticon view,
unless he has seen a canon with his own eyes. But transfer that
view to a book, by the engraver's art, accompanied by a careful
description, and the reader can readily take it in. That is "next
to seeing." Therefore, the numerous illustrations in this volume
occupy a prominent place in its plan. Indeed, in one sense, we may
truly say that more dependence is placed upon the pictorial illustrav
tions than the text, to convey the information intended. They are
not designed merely for entertainment, but also for instruction.
Through the objects illustrated, the character, thrift, and aims of
the people appear. Public buildings exhibit the public enterprise
of town or city. Good schoolhouses indicate general intelligence,
and the value put upon education by the citizens. Houses of worship
are the expression of the noblest and best sentiments of the heart.
For this reason, we claim a special mission for the many illustrations
in this volume. They are furnished at heavy expense ; but are
indispensable to the author's purpose. It would be quite impossible
to learn what the New West is without them.
This book does not contain all the marvels of the New West, by
any means. It does not contain all of even the marvellous marvels.
An octavo volume is quite too limited to admit the record of all such
objects, which abound in the Rocky Mountain district. Not all even
of the marvels selected especially for this volume are found herein ;
xxxvi MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
for our space was filled before the list was exhausted. We furnish
marvels enough, however, to satisfy the most incredulous that the
New West has been very properly called ''Wonderland."
One feature of this volume is the introduction of the opinions of
other men — men of science, explorers, travellers, pleasure-seekers,
and sight-seers generally. To risk our own opinion alone, based upon
our personal observation and research, was altogether too hazardous.
The danger of being stigmatized as the most unscrupulous falsifier
of the age or land, was too much for our flesh and blood to face.
So we have introduced a large number of descriptions of marvels by
other authors, that readers may understand we neither exaggerate
nor lie. At least, dear reader, you will find us in excellent company,
and quite enough of it, too, whether you are inclined to doubt our
veracity or not. We are willing to rest our reputation for truthful-
ness and honor here, after the foregoing explanation.
Marvels ! That idea is adhered to throughout the work. Marvels
of ancient races ; marvels of scenery ; marvels of railroading over
the highest mountains ; marvels of growth ; marvels of agriculture ;
marvels of mining ; marvels of stock-raising ; and other marvels we
need not enumerate here. Nothing but marvels occupy these pages.
The most remarkable things of the New West, and not the common-
place — these are what we lay before the reader, for these express
the possibilities of the New West as the commonplace cannot.
Such as they are, we commend them to the study of young and old,
and commit our humble venture to the considerate judgment of the
public.
THE AUTHOR.
Franklin, Mass., 1887.
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
L MARVELS OF NATURE.
NATURE has wonderfully diversified our whole country; but her
greatest marvels are found between the Missouri River and
the Pacific coast. " I have travelled through Switzerland and Italy,
and seen the beauty and grandeur of Alpine scenery," said a member
of the British Parliament to the author, in Colorado ; " but I have
seen nothing that surpasses the scenery of the Rocky Mountain
region." Such is the almost universal testimony of tourists. Not a
few tourists claim that the scenery of the New West as a whole
surpasses anything to be seen in Europe ; and they have one fact
to support their claim ; viz., the Rio Grande Railroad Company
forwarded many photographic views of Rocky Mountain scenery to
the International Exposition, at Amsterdam, Holland, in 1883, and
received the premium therefor, notwithstanding that Switzerland was
a contestant for the honor. The Colorado commissioner at Amster-
dam, in conveying the award to the Railway Company, said : " The
committee specially appointed to report upon the several exhibits of
railroad scenery, which included a great number from Switzerland
and those of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway, have awarded to
the latter railway the highest premium. This will allow the Rio
Grande to lay claim to passing through the finest scenic country
in the world, not excepting Switzerland, which heretofore stood
unequalled. The views are proving one of the centres of attraction
to the thousands who attend their exhibit daily."
Bayard Taylor says : " The view of the Rocky Mountains from the
Divide near Kiowa Creek is considered one of the finest in Colorado.
From the breezy ridge, between scattered groups of pine, you look
upon one hundred and fifty miles of the snowy range, from the
Sangre de Cristo to the spurs away towards Laramie. In variety
and harmony of form, in effect against the dark blue sky, in breadth
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
and grandeur, I know no external picture of the Alps which can be
placed beside it. If you could take away the valley of the Rhone,
and unite the Alps of Savoy with the Bernese Overland, you might
obtain a tolerable idea of this view of the Rocky Mountains. Pike's
Peak would then represent the Jungfrau ; a nameless snowy giant
in front of you, Monte Rosa; and Long's Peak, Mont Blanc. The
altitudes very nearly correspond, and there is a certain similarity in
the forms. The
average height of
the Rocky Moun-
tains, however,
surpasses that of
the Alps."
An English
author, Wm. A.
Haillie-Grohman,
tamiliar with the
Alpine scenery,
says, in his
"Camps in the
Rockies," "Many
of the Colorado
mountains are
called the Mat-
tcrhorns of Amer-
ica — with about
as much justifi-
cation as the
more diminutive
Ben Nevis, or
Snowdon, merits
that name. With
the Tetons, how-
ever, it is differ-
ent ; for it makes, so far as I know, the only and very brilliant excep-
tion to the usual dome-like formation of the Rockies. In shape it is
very like the Swiss master-peak ; but inasmuch as the Western rival
rises in one majestic sweep of one thousand feet from the natural
park, to an altitude all but the same (13,800 feet), I would, in this
instance, in point of sublimity give the palm to the New World."
On the Line of D
R. G. Railway.
GRAND CANON OF THE ARKANSAS.
MARVELS OF NATURE.
I
CANONS.
A canon is a mighty gorge cut in the mountains by an irresistible
torrent on its way to the sea. These wonderful chasms are numer-
ous in the Rocky Mountains, some of them almost too grand to admit
of description.
Among the more
widely known is
"The Grand Canon
of the Arkansas,"
its name being de-
rived from the Ar-
kansas River, which
rushes through it.
The foregoing illus-
tration furnishes a
view of it at the
entrance where the
railroad enters.
This canon is ten
miles in length, the
Royal Gorge, which
is the narrowest and
deepest point, ex-
tending but a frac-
tional part of the
distance. It is thirty
feet wide at the
gorge, with the walls
rising perpendicu-
larly on either side
two thousand feet
skyward, here and
there a pinnacle
shooting several
hundred feet higher.
The scene is weird,
solemn, and awful,
totally unlike anything which we ever dreamed of. Merriment is
out of place there ; no observer is inclined to joke as he looks
up at the mountain crevice in which he seems confined. The rocky
On the Line of D & R. G. Railway.
THE ROYAL GORGE.
6 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
sides two thousand feet high ! Set ten Bunker Hill Monuments,
one upon another, and the distance is barely covered !
Several gentlemen viewed the Royal Gorge from the summit
before any one dreamed of running a railway through it. One of
the number — a clergyman — said to the writer: *' We knew that it
was an awful place, for friends had been there before us, and rolled
large stones over the precipice, to listen to their reverberating sound
as they descended, down, down, down, their noise dying away in the
distance. We had a strong desire to look down into the awful gorge
from the top, so we crawled on our hands and feet to the dizzy edge,
not daring to trust ourselves in an upright position, and cast one
swift glance down into the terrible chasm ; and that was enough.
The transient view was a shock to our nerves. We crawled back as
quickly as possible to a place of safety, and from that day to this, I
never had the least desire to repeat the act. Though seven years
have elapsed, as often as memory recalls the scene, I feel a weakness
and shudder running through my body."
The " Black Canon " is a darker and more dismal gorge, lying west
of Gunnison City. Its name is derived from the dark, sombre appear-
ance of the walls, although in some places they are composed of red
sandstone. But a profusion of cedars and pines grow near the sum-
mits and out of crevices which the elements have made down the
sides ; and these cast a gloom over the place, creating a sensation of
loneliness in the hearts of many observers. There is great variety
of scenery in this canon, and one never tires of looking. Here and
there small rivulets are seen issuing from the craggy sides, two
thousand feet up and more, while occasionally a beautiful cascade
leaps over its rocky bed to break in pieces on the rocks below ; and,
in one instance, a cataract leaps clear of every rock and plunges
down the whole distance to the railway track. This canon is thirty
miles long, — three times the length of the Grand Canon of the
Arkansas.
The waterfall at the right is known as Chipeta Falls, and here the
sides of the canon rise from fifteen hundred to two thousand feet.
From the railway the view is impressive. The canon is unlike that
of Arkansas in its general appearance, and yet like it in depth and
some other characteristics. The contrast between the two is suffi-
cient to create a lively interest in both, enough to dispel that false
idea of the tourists, "when you have seen one canon, you have seen
all." Like "the human face divine," no two of them are alike, and
hence each one must be studied by itself. We have entered them
MARVELS OF NATURE.
at the bottom, middle, and top, and it is quite impossible to say at
which point there is most to enjoy. At either altitude the impres-
On the Line of D. & R. G. Railway.
THE BLACK CANON.
sion can be described only by a series of exclamation points. ** Web-
ster's Great Unabridged" is mute on almost any canon, and at almost
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
any point thereon. " Comparisons become odious " as never before ;
so that even the aspiring letter-writer feels somewhat insignificant
On the Line of D. & R. G. Railway.
CURRICANTI'S NEEDLE.
in his vain attempt at accurate description, and is inclined to say,
" Lord, what is man that thou art mindful of him ?"
MARVELS OF NATURE.
Among the most remarkable objects in this canon is '' Curricauti's
Needle," which towers above all other pinnacles. It stands as a
sentinel to guard the everlasting solitude at its base. It is of a red-
dish color from top to bottom, and rises very abruptly into the air.
A "Cleopatra Obelisk" does not possess more grace or symmetry
than this natural wonder. Here and there a tree or shrub thrives
in the crevices _
of its rocky
sides. The cut
is a fine and cor-
rect representa-
tion of the
marvel.
The author
of ''The Crest
of the Conti-
nent " says of
this marvel: '*In
the very centre
of the canon,
where its bul-
warks are most
lofty and pre-
cipitous, unbro-
ken cliffs rising
two thousand
feet without a
break, and shad-
owed by over-
hanging corni-
ces — just here
stands the most
striking buttress
and pinnacle of
them all, —
Curricauti's Needle. It is a conical tower standing out somewhat
beyond the line of the wall, from which it is separated (so that from
some points of view it looks wholly isolate) on one side by a deep gash,
and on the other by one of those narrow side-canons which in the
western part of the gorge occur every mile or two. These ravines
are filled with trees, and make a green setting for this massive
On the Line of D. & R
CASTLE GATE.
lO
MARVELS OF THE NEW HEST.
monolith of pink stone, whose diminishing apex ends in a leaning
spire that seems to trace its march upon the sweeping clouds."
As our limits will not allow of an illustration or description of the
Price River Canon, lying beyond on the route to Salt Lake City, we
will call attention to its marvellous gateway, called "Castle Gate,"
through which river, railway, and trail pass.
It strikingly resembles the ''Gateway to the Garden of the Gods."
"The two huge pillars or ledges of rock composing it, are offshoots
of the cliffs behind. They are of different heights, one measuring
five hundred, and the other four hundred and fifty feet, from top to
base. They are richly dyed with red, and the firs and pines growing
about them, but reaching only to
their lower strata, render this color
more noticeable and beautiful. Be-
tween the two sharp promontories,
which are separated only by a nar-
row space, the river and the railway
both run, one pressing closely
against the other. The stream
leaps over a rocky bed, and its
banks are lined with tangled brush.
Once past the gate, and looking
back, the bold headlands forming
it have a new and more attractive
beauty. They are higher and more
massive, it seems, than when we
were in their shadow. Church-
like caps hang far over the perpen-
dicular faces. No other pinnacles
approach them in size and majesty.
They are landmarks up and down
the canon, their lofty tops catching the eye before their bases are
discovered. It was down Price River Canon, and past Castle Gate,
that General Sydney Johnson marched his army home from Utah."
Twenty miles from Denver is the entrance to Platte Canon,
which is scarcely inferior to the Arkansas Canon in the variety and
grandeur of its scenery.
The walls at the entrance are several hundred feet high, increas-
ing in altitude as the mountain is penetrated. Peak on peak greet
the eye, shooting up higher and higher, as the train begins to
climb the sides of the mountains. The tourist has heard that the
RIFT IN THE ROCKS.
MARVELS OF NATURE. II
Rocky Mountains are distinguished for the number of peaks, and
now he has ocular demonstration of it. With a single sweep of his
vision he can count thirty, forty, and even sixty peaks, piled one above
another, clear back to the sky.
Personal observation alone can enable one to realize the crooked-
ness of the canon. It is necessarily crooked beyond all ordinary con-
ception of crookedness ; so that crookedness becomes one of the grand
novelties to enjoy. We venture to affirm that the traditionary stick
that was so crooked it couldn't lie still, was not so crooked as this
canon.
The eye is frequently delighted by such scenes as the cut on the
previous page illustrates, the monumental stones or spires often num-
bering a half-dozen in the cluster.
A writer who is perfectly familiar with this canon says : " For full
fifty miles there is a succession of complex curves, and beetling
heights coming almost together above and crowding the track from
one side to the other. Nature has shaped the rocks so oddly that
giants seemingly stand guard by their castles perched dizzily above,
l)ut scorning to molest the rabble going uninvited through their
possessions. It is a fascinating sight to watch the engine, which
writhes along as though its gleaming fire were an inward life, its
puffs a pulse, and the sparks flying crimson against the walls, drops
of agony. At times the cliff is directly ahead. Unwittingly you
brace for the shock to come when the cars shall be dashed to pieces
■against its flinty face. But with a quick turn to the right or left, the
passage by is made in safety. The train hurries by picturesque
hamlets, among which Estabrook Park is perhaps the most delightful,
and up Kenosha Hill by a miracle of engineering, and from the top
you behold such a panorama as was never seen before from the
windows of a railway coach."
Boulder Canon, in which Dome Rock is found, is sixteen miles
in length, wild and grand. A tourist (H. H.) says : '*To see Boulder
Canon aright, one must enter it from the Nederlands Meadows,
at its upper mouth ; and to reach the Nederlands Meadows from
Denver, one must go by rail to the Clear Creek Canon, and drive
•across from Central City to Nederlands. The road lies through tracts
of pines and over great ridges, grand in their loneliness. From
•every ridge is a new view of the ' Snowy Range ' to the west and
north. In strong sunlight and shadow, these myriads of snow peaks,
relieved against the blue sky, are of such brilliant and changing
colors that it must be a very dull soul indeed that could look on
12
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
them without thinking of many-colored jewels. On the day that I
saw this view, James' Peak was covered with snow, and stood in full
light. Its sharp, pyramidal lines looked as fine cut and hard as if
the mountains had but just been hewn from alabaster."
Clear Creek Canon deserves mention with the remarkable
canons already
named. Mr.
Fossett says:,
"The most en-
tertaining trip
that can be
made, and the
quickest and
cheapest, is that
by way of the
Colorado Cen-
tral Railway
from Denver to
the mining cit-
ies of Central,
Black Hawk,
Idaho, and
Georgetown. In
this the tourist
gets the great-
est variety for
the least expen-
diture of money
that any single
excursion af-
fords which act-
ually enters the
mountains any
distance. While
Clear Creek
Canon [through
which the afore-
said cities are
reached] may not compare with the Royal Gorge in massive gran-
deur, the tourist can derive unalloyed pleasure from the many and
varied sights that continually offer themselves en route and at adja-
cent points on either hand."
DOME ROCK.
MARVELS OF NATURE.
13
This cafion is twenty miles from Denver, and was the first ever
penetrated by a railway. At the entrance, the walls rise about one
thousand feet, so near together that a child can throw a stone from
one side to the other. It is exceedingly tortuous, jagged, and grand.
The rocky walls often rise to two thousand feet, and even to twenty-
five hundred feet, in sublime proportions, and nature has carved
them into many fantastic forms. Henry James, Esq., says : " At
times the canon widens, but again it comes together like two mighty
jaws. Some marvellous turns are made, until in confusion you won-
der which way you are going, and if such a series of doubling back
will not ultimately lead to the starting-point." He continues : '' For
the miles of amazing, overpowering height of cliffs, and their near
approach to or absolute verticality ; for majestic, awe-inspiring gran-
deur of projecting masses along the mighty walls, and the domes of
bare gray or brown granite that tower above, combined with the
peaceful, indeed exquisite, beauty of the floor of its upper valley so
many thousand
feet below the
surrounding
silvery sum-
mits, as well
as for the ma-
jesty of the
forests of pine
and spruce
that clothe the
mountains as
far as the eye
can reach ; and
for the absorb-
ing interest of
vast gold and
silver mining
enterprises lin-
ing it for miles
at a stretch, and in its pos-
session of delicious healing ^^
waters, — for all these things
Clear Creek stands une-
qualled by any canon penetrated by a railway on the whole earth.
An hour's ride from Denver, over the Colorado Division of the
THE DOUBLE HEAD.
14
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Union Pacific, takes the tourist fairly into it, and for forty miles
he is afforded a spectacle of surpassing splendor."
The Double Head is a hanging rock as well as a double head, lo-
cated in a very picturesque part of the canon. Double-faced humans
are more common in flesh than they are in stone, because they are
more easily wrought in soft material, we suppose. Hence, they are
more remarkable in stone. Let the reader study the illustration
thoughtfully, and his wonder over such natural phenomena will
increase.
THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAINS
That the above bit of sculpture was well named by miner or tour-
ist, the reader must admit. The features of the "old man" stand
out in bold relief, even to the left ear. There have been other " old
man of the mountains" in different parts of our country, — one of
them in New England, — but none of them can compare with this in
MARVELS OF NATURE.
5
Striking resemblance. The venerable patriarch can add to his nov-
elty by laying claim to the fact that he was settled here before
Columbus landed on these shores.
I
GRAY'S PEAK.
It is through Clear Creek Canon that Georgetown is reached, from
which place parties easily ascend to the summit of Gray's Peak, which
is two hundred feet higher than Pike's Peak. Gray's is 14,341 feet
above the level of the sea — the highest mountain peak in the United
States except Blanca. Here is the "dome of the continent," as all
who ascend to the top of Gray's Peak fully realize, when, in a clear
1 6 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
day, they take in the magnificent view of two hundred miles and
more in every direction.
Henry James, Esq., describes the view from Gray's Peak most
graphically. "A wavering line," he says, ''stretches back to the
valley, and the tourist wonders vaguely if he has just come over it.
The horse is panting as he takes the last turn, and his shoes click
upon the granite jewels of the continental crown. Gray's Peak is
beneath you. The sea is 14,41 1 feet below your level. Hats off !
The genius of this sublime solitude demands homage. They who
have traversed the globe say that it affords but one such prospect.
A pictured landscape so mighty in conception that it overpowers, yet
harmonious as an anthem in all its infinite diffusion of color and
form ; framed only by the limit of the eye's vision ; a picture where
the lakes gleam and the rivers flow, the trees nod, and the cloud ships
clash in misty collision with the peaks which have invaded their realm,
while the moving sun floods it with real life and warmth. How like
an atom the beholder feels ! Northward, southward, westward, ramify
the spurs of the range, till remoteness swallows them up. Pike's Peak
is a neighbor. Lincoln's and Long's seem near. The sharpness of
the Spanish peaks — Terra's Twins — near New Mexico, is distinct,
while the Uintah Mountains rise up faintly in the distance of Utah.
Here and there are depressions where parks and valleys are. Every
park in the State can be located. You may trace the course of rivers
and the site of lakes. You can see the little cities in sheltering nooks,
and pathways from them up the mountain side. You detect the glint
of the Holy Cross. You perceive the South Park Railway worming
along the valley of the Blue. You overlook Decatur and Dillon and
Chihuahua. You note the hovering dusk which broods above Lead-
ville. Eastward are the plains — a waterless ocean — each town a
fleet, each house a sail, each grove an island. Denver is seen, like
the mythical city of the mirage."
Close observation of the cut will show Mr. James to the reader, on
his way to the summit.
The writer whose description of the view from Gray's Peak we
quoted referred to the "Mount of the Holy Cross." It is not a
fancy picture — it is a real mountain, rightly named, situated in the
vicinity of Leadville and Red Cliff. "The sacred symbol which
gives the name to the ' Mount of the Holy Cross ' is derived from
two great and deep depressions, one vertical, and one horizontal,
which cross each other nearly at right angles on the bare eastern
slope of the mountain, which in winter become filled with great
MARVELS OF NATURE.
17
masses of snow. During the summer the snows around these
depressions are melted away, leaving the rest naked, and the snowy
On Line of D. & R. G. Railway
■emblem of human
faith and hope stands
gleaming in white
splendor against the
azure sky, as if Na-
ture were thus con-
secrating the mountains to her God,
reflects the sun's glories above it."
Williams' Canon is entered from Mani-
tou, Colorado. It is a narrow gorge, so nar-
row that, in one place, scarcely a single inch j
of space separates the carriage from the
walls on either side. The tortuous road winds itself through scenery
as grand as it is versatile. Tall cliffs and monumental piles of rock
I8
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
WILLIAMS' CANON.
rise, one upon another, in wonderful profusion, " worn by some fierce
torrents of long ago, until now they show on their steep facades,
the deep scars which whirling rocks have formed."
MARVELS OF NATURE.
19
"Rainbow Falls" is a very beautiful cascade, in one of the
most romantic parts of the wild Ute Pass. Its name is derived from
the fact that, at a certain time of day,
when the sun reaches a given meridian,
a perfect rainbow appears on the sheet
of falling water.
Two miles up the canon is the *' Cave
of the Winds " (p. 21), a remarkable sub-
terranean cavern in which a hundred
chambers have been explored, some of
them very high and long. In these cham-
bers are countless stalactites and stalag-
mites, which glisten in the light of
torches which explorers carry, presenting
a dazzling and fairy-like appearance.
Cave of the Winds is a great curios-
ity to all tourists, and they put them-
selves to great inconvenience in order
to see it. It is wild in itself, and every-
thing around it is wild also. A party
on their way thither were overtaken by
a tempest in the mountains, and one
of the number acquaints us with the
scene as follows : —
" Once, in a ramble to the Cave of the Winds, we were weather-
bound for an hour in a lime-burner's hut by the side of the trail,
while a furious hail-storm rolled through the canon, and five minutes
after the majestic columns in the Temple of Isis, a thousand feet
above our heads, were blazing and glowing as if under some reflected
shower of sunshine. The flying clouds lifted here and there from
peaks and battlements ; the inspired air tingled in every vein ; the
heavenly glow and radiance flashed into our souls ; and ten minutes
after we were in the midst of another swift storm of hail, or snow,
or rain, as if sunshine never belonged to the world. ... It was not
unusual, through these days, to have four alternate storms in the
course of a single hour, with clear skies between ; but owing to the
brilliant rarity of the air, we were never sure it was raining until we
felt or actually saw it. And this when it was pouring a ton to the
square inch."
*' How the giant element
From rock to rock, leaps with delirious bound!"
On the Line of D. & R. G. Railway.
RAINBOW FALLS.
20
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
A very remarkable locality in Clear Creek Caiion, near George-
town, has been named '' Devil's Gate." It is spanned by a railroad
bridge at a dizzy height, from which tourists enjoy a very enchanting
On -the Line of U P. Railroad.
DEVIL'S GATE.
view The strange wildness of the scenery, a mixture of jagged-
ness, confusion, and desolation, suggest badness, and hence the bad
name.
MARVELS OF NATURE.
21
Castle Rock is a huge formation, so much Hke an old feudal castle
as to suggest its present name. An arch underneath, like an ample
doorway, renders it a more curious and notable object. Water, no
doubt, that powerful agent of nature, imprisoned within, found this the
most feasible way of getting out, and hence the arch. Mythology
would not be troubled to find here an abode of the gods, whose
presence once converted cave, dell, rock, ravine, and mountain peak
and gorge into strange thrilling history.
Another curiosity in this canon is the "Pillar of Jupiter," — so
named by tourists,
— a mammoth rock,
or ledge, worn by
the elements into
its present impos-
ing appearance.
The pedestal on
which nature has
erected this statue
is so distinct that
the statue itself
becomes more strik-
ing. It is a curious
production, or freak
of nature, as some
would call it, con-
tributing another
object of interest
to the great variety
which everywhere
keeps the vision
lively.
Dr. Taylor
writes of Pike's
Peak, as seen from Denver, as follows: "To the southwest. Pike's
Peak, the mighty milestone and monument to thousands of the
old miners, stands erect and flat-footed upon the world. It is
seventy-five miles to its base, but the view is as clean-cut as a
cameo. Should I tell anybody it is 13,985 feet high, it would
be no very satisfactory information ; should I say, you must climb
about twelve miles to reach the summit, it would be better; but
suppose the reader swings a little water over a fire on the sea-
CAVE OF THE WINDS
22
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
CASTLE ROCK.
ter than the tea strong enough
our grandmothers clinked up their
after a big washing.
How often lofty people
forget that ebullition
does not always mean
earnestness and fervor.
Boiling water is not
necessarily hot water."
"Ute Pass" is the
world-renowned wagon
trail from Manitou to
Leadville, a narrow de-
file leading over the
mountains in a circuit-
ous way. It was original-
ly an Indian trail over
which the red men trav-
elled to and from the
Manitou Valley. When
o^old was discovered at
to
beach, metonymically, it will
boil at 212°. Now pick up
kettle, kindling-wood, and
thermometer, and begin
your climb. At fifty-three
hundred feet the water is in
active trouble at 202°. Play-
ing Longfellow's young
man, Excelsior, again, at the
altitude of 10,600 feet it is
in a lively state of unrest
at 192°. Another lift to
the top of the Peak, and the
peripatetic kettle makes a
tambourine of the lid, and
plays so mild a tune that
what scalded you so prompt-
ly and satisfactorily down
by the sea, will be no hot-
"bear up an ^g^y' wherewith
hearts and limbered their tongues
PILLAR OF JUPITER.
MARVELS OF NATURE.
23
Leadville, and the rush for that Eldorado fairly set in, this trail was
converted into a passable road, at an expense of ^15,000, over which
the immense supplies were carried to that most famous of all mining
FREIGHT TEAMS CLIMBING UTE PASS.
towns, Colorado City being headquarters for supplies. Two thou-
sand horses and mules were employed to convey the necessaries
of life over the **Pass" to that rapidly growing population, and
24
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
Still there was privation, and even suffering, among the gold-seek-
ers because of scant supplies. As soon, however, as rail com-
munication with the place was established, the quantity and price
of goods found their proper level. Twenty-five cents a pound for hay
was a common price when it was carried over the pass, but the rail-
road reduced it at
once to three, and
even less. The
illustration also
furnishes a good
view . of Rainbow
Falls.
Another says of
Ute Pass: ''The
oftener one goes
through this pass,
the grander it
seems. There are
in it no mere sem-
blances, no delu-
sions of atmos-
pheric effect. It
is as severely,
sternly real as-
Gibraltar. Sun-
light cannot soft-
en it nor storms
make it more
frowning. High,
rocky, inaccessi-
ble, its walls tower
and wind and seem
at every turn to
close rather than
to open the path
through which the merry little stream comes leaping, foaming
down. . . .
For a short distance the road is narrow and perilous — on strips
of ledges between two precipices, or on stony rims of the crowded
brook, which it crosses and recrosses twenty-four times in less than,
three miles. Then the Pass widens, the rocky walls sink gradually,.
On the Line of D. & R. G. Railway.
MANITOU AND PIKE'S PEAK.
MARVELS OF NATURE. 2$
round and expand into lovely hills — hill after hill bearing more and
more off to the right and more and more off to the left — until there
is room for bits of meadow along the brook and for groves and grassy
intervals where the hills join ; room and at the same time shelter,
for the hills are still high. . . .
We came out at sunset on a ridge from which we could look down
into a meadow. The ridge sloped down to the meadow through a
gateway made by two huge masses of rocks. All alone in the smooth
grassy forest they loomed up in the dim light, stately and straight as
colossal monoliths, though they were in reality composed of rounded
bowlders piled one above another."
Pike's Peak was named in honor of Gen. L. M. Pike, who discov-
ered it in 1806. The ascent is wearisome and somewhat perilous,
passing, as the trail does, over rugged hills and the precipitous walls
of narrow canons. The ascent is made from Manitou, which nestles
at its base, as indicated by the cut. The transition is very abrupt
from a dense pine forest to the bare, bald, storm-beaten mountain
side where no vegetation appears, except grass here and there in
patches among the rocks. The summit is nearly level, embracing
about sixty acres. Near it appears a faint yellow blossom mingled
with purple, often in great profusion, so near to the snow that blos-
soms may be plucked with one hand and snow with the other. Two
mighty gorges extend from the top almost to the base, one of which
can be seen at the distance of eighty miles.
"Pike's Peak" was the watchword of the gold-seekers in 1859,
who flocked by thousands and tens of thousands to the region which
that famous landmark overlooked. The next year the product of the
mines, within the Pike's Peak district, amounted to four million dol-
lars. In August, i860, the population was sixty thousand; and, two
months later, nearly two million dollars were invested in quartz-mills,
— a fact which shows the rapidity of settlement.
The view of Pike's Peak from Manitou is exceedingly impressive.
The town is about six thousand feet above the sea level, but the
mountain rises more than eight thousand feet above it in unparalleled
grandeur. Lesser peaks surround it in magnificent proportions,
and magnify, by contrast, the majesty of their towering monarch.
Private enterprise has undertaken and will complete a railway
to the top of the peak, where the United States Signal Service has
had a station for several years. The following cut illustrates the
method of ascending the great peak by rail, running thirty miles to
ascend two.
26
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
The Pike's Peak Railway will be the most notable piece of track
in the world. It will ascend two thousand feet higher than the Lima
and Oroya Railway in Peru. Its whole length, thirty miles, will be
a succession of complicated curves and grades, with no piece of
straight work longer than three hundred feet.
Cheyenne Canon is situated three miles from Colorado Springs,
and possesses many grand features. We shall occupy space only to
call attention to the one marvellous object that makes it famous, —
The Seven Falls.
One who has often penetrated this canon to gaze enraptured upon
its wonderful Seven Falls, says : " In Cheyenne Canon, at its extreme
end, a volume of water dashes over a dizzy height, and, leaping from
ledge to ledge, reaches its
granite basin, and lingers
there awhile to recover from
its fall before speeding on
again toward the river lead-
ing across the plains to the
distant sea. This canon,
only three miles from town,
is entered after climbing
to the top of a sloping mesa,
which commands a view of
the city and plains. A nar-
row path penetrates the
mountains, and leads
through a luxuriant growth
of trees to where stern,
rocky, vari-colored heights press their huge shoulders into the
narrow way, and render climbing necessary for those who would
go still deeper into the solitudes of the Rockies. Tall trees, up-
rooted by the madly rushing stream which flows through the
canon, and thrown down by the fierce winds, which, at some
time, have swept through the narrow gorge, lie across the path
in wild disorder. There is a balmy fragrance in the air ; a low
rumble fills the place as the water leaps over the fallen bowl-
ders which beset its path ; there are ever-varying shades ; and
now and then a glimpse is had beyond the canon's mouth, of the
plains, which are lighted by the sunlight, while the gorge is dark
and cold."
Echo Canon is entered by the Union Pacific Railway at Castle
PIKE'S PEAK RAILWAY.
MARVELS OF NATURE,
27
Rock in the Wa-
satch Mountains,
Utah. It embraces
some of the wildest
and most majestic
scenery of the New
West, together with
several of the most
original and inter-
esting objects which
nature ever carved.
These begin at the
very mouth of the
canon, as the cut on
the following page
shows.
Nature builds on
a magnificent scale
at the West, and so
her rock-pulpit, at
the opening of Echo
Canon, is none of
your modern toy af-
fairs behind which
an orator can hide
all but his head. It
is made to stand
upon, though tow-
ering high into the
air ; and the imagi-
nary preacher occu-
pying it is supposed
to address the mul-
titude who pass
down the canon by
generations. It is a
fitting introduction
to the scenes that
follow.
Mr. Crofutt says :
**The beauties of
THE SEVEN FALLS.
28
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Echo Canon are so many, so majestic, so awe-inspiring in their
subHmity, that there is little use in calling the traveller's atten-
tion to them. . . . Four miles below Hanging Rock the walls
rise in massive majesty, the prominent features of the canon.
Rain, wind, and time have combined to destroy them, but in
vain. Centuries have come and gone since that mighty con-
vulsion shook the earth to its centre, when Echo and Weber
canons sprung into existence, — twin children, whose birth was
heralded by throes such as the earth may never feel again ; and
still the mighty wall of Echo remains, bidding defiance alike to time
and his co-laborers, the elements ; still hangs the delicate fret and
frost work from the walls ; still the pillar, column, dome, and spire
stand boldly forth in
all their grand, wild,
and weird beauty to
entrance the traveller,
and fill his mind with
wonder and awe." ^
Another says : "■ A
canon is only a valley
between the high hills ;
that is all, though the
word seems such a loud
and compound mys-
tery of warfare, both
carnal and spiritual.
But when the valley is
thousands of feet deep, and so narrow that a river can barely make
its way through by shrinking and twisting and leaping ; when one
wall is a mountain of grassy slope, and the other wall is a mountain
of straight, sharp stone ; when from a perilous road, which creeps
along on ledges of the wall which is a mountain of stone, one looks
across to the wall which is grassy slope, and down at the silver line
of twisting, turning, leaping river, — the word canon seems as inade-
quate as the milder word valley. This was Echo Canon. We drew
near it through rocky fields almost as grand as the canon itself.
Rocks of red and pale yellow color were piled and strewn on either
hand in confusion so wild that it was majestic ; many of them looked
like gateways and walls and battlements of fortifications ; many of
^ Crofutt's Overland Tourist is indispensable to the traveller. It contributes information,
direction, and interest to his travels.
PULPIT ROCK.
MARVELS OF NATURE.
29
them seemed poised on points, just ready to fall. Others rose, mas-
sive and solid, from terraces which stretched away beyond our sight.
. . . Then the canon walls close in again, and looking down, we see
On the Line of U. P. Railway.
HANGING ROCK.
only a silver thread of river ; looking up, we see only a blue belt of
sky. Suddenly we turn a sharp corner and come out on a broad
plain. The canon walls have opened like arms, and they hold a town
named after their own voices, Echo City. The arms are mighty, for
30
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
they are snow-capped mountains. The plain is green and the river
is still."
The preceding cut represents a remarkable hanging rock, of
which there are several
in the Rocky Moun-
tain region. This is
; the most famous of
- them all, and it is loca-
^i ted in the wildest part
,:^ of Echo Canon. The
canon is so crooked for
nearly thirty miles be-
fore reaching this rock,
that the railway cros-
ses the creek thirty-one
times in twenty-six
miles.
Eight miles from
Echo City the rocks
just described are lost
sight of, and others of
different form, larger
and grander, are sub-
stituted. The canon
also becomes wilder and
more inaccessible, re-
quiring tunnels to be
cut in order to sur-
mount serious difficul-
ties. Here a tunnel,
five hundred and fifty
feet through a solid
rock, is cut, and a little
further on, another of
less importance. Near
the entrance of the first
tunnel formerly stood
Finger Rock. Time
and the elements have broken it away, but its remarkable appear-
ance is still remembered distinctly by those who were so fortunate
^s to behold it in its original symmetry.
On the Line of U. P. Railway.
DEVIL'S SLIDE.
MARVELS OF NATURE. 31
Devil's Slide is a very singular figure, and is an object of great in-
terest to tourists. It is serrated rocks. This slide is composed of
two ridges of granite rock, reaching from the river nearly to the summit
of a sloping, grass-clad mountain. They are from fifty to two hun-
dred feet high, narrow slabs, standing on edge, as though forced
out of the mountain side. The two ridges run parallel with each
other, about ten feet apart, the space between them covered with
grass, wild flowers, and climbing vines.
If nature had intended to provide a curiosity for travellers of the
nineteenth century, when human enterprise would tunnel and remove
mountains, she could not have been more successful. The action of
the elements has produced many remarkable natural phenom.ena,
here and elsewhere, but few more interesting than this. We do not
wonder that wind and water have been ages 'in excavating this
mighty gorge, with so much carving on its adamantine walls. Water
can easily percolate through mountain ranges, and finally plunge in
torrents down weird ravines, plowing deeper and deeper, overturning,
defacing, and destroying in its mad, onward rush : but to sculpture
as it goes — that is not so easy. Nevertheless, here and elsewhere,
the elements have wrought better than they knew ; and now tourists
find pleasure in these art galleries of nature.
Pulpit Rock is not a single shaft of granite, but is ^composed
of several stones laid one upon another. It would be of little inter-
est, of course, were it a huge pile erected by human strength and
skill ; for then it would not be wonderful at all. It is because human
plan and effort had nothing to do with its formation that it awakens
interest. It is such objects as this which make a trip over the Union
Pacific Railroad a great novelty.
The " American Fork Canon " of Utah is grand, though devoid
of the gorgeous coloring of Echo and Weber canons. The walls at
the entrance are not more than a hundred feet apart, and the peaks six
hundred feet high. But the walls rise rapidly until they are twenty-five
hundred feet above the road-bed. The traveller experiences a peculiar
sensation at times from the appearance of the walls coming together
just in advance of him, and shutting him in, so narrow is the gorge.
Let the reader imagine himself in this crevice of the Rockies, if he
can, with the walls towering above him eight times as high as the
tallest of the big trees in the Yosemite Valley ; and he can form
some idea of the impressiveness of the scene. Eight of the tallest
trees from the Mariposa grove, one set upon another, only cover the
distance from the bed of the canon to the tallest peaks above on
32
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST
either side ! Mr. Crofutt puts the matter finely when he says :
" Imagine, then, this canon with its grottos, amphitheatres, and its
towering crags, peaks, and needle-pointed rocks, towering /^r above
^_ ___ the road, overhanging
" it in places, with
patches of eternal
snow in the gloomy
gorges near the sum-
mit, and clothed at
all times in a mantle
of green, the pine,
spruce, and cedar
trees growing in all
the nooks and gulches
and away up on the
summit ; then count-
less mosses and ferns
clinging to each crev-
ice and seam where a
foothold can be se-
cured, together with
the millions of flow-
ers of every hue;
where the sun's rays
are sifted through
countless objects on
their way to the sil-
very, sparkling
stream below, with
its miniature cascades
and eddies. We say
imagine all these
things, and then you
will only have a faint
outline of the wild
and romantic, pictur-
esque and glorious
American Fork Canon." "Lion Rock," "Telescope Peak," "Sled-
runner Curve," "Rainbow Cliff," and "Hanging Rock" are among
the objects of peculiar interest in this canon.
It requires no stretch of the imagination, in passing through a
On the Line of U. P. Railway.
PULPIT ROCK.
MARVELS OF NATURE,
33
canon like this, to behold castles, pyramids, obelisks, towers, colon-
nades, and every sort of architecture in the marvellous rock-forma-
tions that appear on every side. Bayard Taylor said of the view in
another locality of the '' Rockies " : " Here was a feudal castle of the
Middle Ages ; there a shattered, irregular obelisk, or broken pyra-
mid ; and finally, rising above from the level of a meadow, we beheld
three perpendicular towers, eighty feet high, resting on a common
base. Their crests were of bright orange hue, fading downward into
white. Beyond them extended the shattered battlements of a city
On the Line of U. P. Railway.
HIPPOPOTAMUS ROCK (Near Sherman).
sparkling in the sunshine." The principal part of this description
will apply to hundreds of localities within canons and without.
The name of the above rock is derived from its form, which is sin-
gular indeed. The more we study it, the more remarkable it appears.
The foundation even is as remarkable as the rock itself, when we
stop to reflect that it was laid by nature, and not by man. It is a
huge affair ; and here it has stood for ages, probably, in just this
34
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
position. If it were thrown into this position by some convulsion of
nature, so much the more mysterious must be its history ; for then
an earthquake must have
order in its madness. Ev-
idently the real life of this
rock would contain a won-
derful chapter of nature's
effort to heave the Rocky
Mountain region into its
present status.
We shall not even call
attention to many canons,
but close our special atten-
tion to them by a descrip-
tion of the greatest canon
of all, — "The Grand
Canon of the Colora-
do," with several of its
side canons. This is the
most marvellous canon of
the world, its name being
derived from the river
which runs through it. It
is situated in Arizona, and
is nearly three hundred
miles in length.
The United States Gov-
ernment explored Colorado
River and canons, from
1869 to 1872, doing the
work thoroughly, under the
lead of Captain (now Ma-
jor) J. W. Powell. Powell
and his men were the first
human beings who ever
passed through the whole
length of the canons — a
thousand miles. It was
a remarkable exploit, to accomplish which they actually took their
lives into their hands, and made a stake of everything. Once on
their way, return was impossible : they must proceed or perish.
CLIMBING THE GRAND CANON OF THE COLORADO.
MARVELS OF NATURE. 35
They commenced their hazardous undertaking by entering the
first canon, on the northery boundary of the State of Colorado. The
river was rapid and turbulent, taxing the skill and judgment of the
party to keep their light boats right side up. Week after week and
month after month they pursued their perilous way down the river,
through tortuous gorges, hemmed in by walls on either side, often
four, five, and six thousand feet high, not knowing but that each day
would be their last.
In 1854 two men, White and Strobe, were seeking gold in South-
eastern Utah, where they were attacked by Indians. They took
refuge in one of the uppermost canons of the river, where, upon
reflection, they saw their only way of escape was down the river.
To return would be sure death, as the Indians would show them no
mercy. Constructing a rude raft with such wood as they could find,
they started down the river. The fourth day their raft upset as they
were descending rapids, and Strobe was drowned. White clung to
the raft, and succeeded in righting it ; and he continued his journey
alone, rapids and whirlpools frequently imperilling his life. In ten
days he reached a small Mexican settlement of a dozen poor adobe
huts, and he was safe. He escaped from the Indians of Utah, how-
ever, only to be killed by other Indians the following year.
In 1855 a party of several men, led by one Ashley, made a similar
attempt, and they were soon wrecked, and all but Ashley and one
companion drowned.. Major Powell discovered the remains of that
wreck, and honored their brave leader by naming the spot Ashley
Falls. Such facts show that Powell and his exploring party under-
took a very perilous work for their country.
By actual measurement, the walls at the highest point of the
canon are six thousand two hundred feet ! It is difficult for the
reader to appreciate the depth of this canon. Perhaps the writer
can assist him to take it in. Imagine yourself at the bottom of the
chasm, looking upwards. It is six thousand two hundred feet to
the edge of the precipice above. A very tall church-spire, from the
foundation, is two hundred feet, though very few pierce the air to
that distance. Thirty-ojie church-spires of two hundred feet each,
one upon another, will just cover the distance from bottom to top !
Can your mind grasp and comprehend the grandeur of such a scene }
Mountain-walls rising towards the sky more than six thousand feet,
with crags and monumental piles, jagged rocks, and barren peaks,
wildness, weirdness, and strangeness, uniting to make the abyss sub-
lime and mysterious beyond description ! " Who is like unto thee,
36
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
O Lord, among the gods ? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fear-
ful in praises, doing wonders ? "
What explorers call the " Grand Canon District " embraces so
many marvels that it is difficult to make a selection. However, we
shall call attention to several which have been carefully photo-
graphed.
Buttes in the western portion of the Grand Canon District are
higher than those near Kanab ; yet, in the latter region, they are
from three hundred to six hundred feet high. " But," remarks Dut-
ton, "what they lack in magnitude they make up in refinement and
PERMIAN BUTTE. (Near Kanab.)
beauty of detail, and in sumptuous color. It is in the Permian that
we find the most remarkable buttes. They are never large, but their
resemblance to human architecture, or works of design, are often
amazing. Very few Permian buttes are found in the Grand Canon
District ; but further eastward, especially in the neighborhood of the
junction of the Grand and Green rivers, they are innumerable, and
of such definiteness that the geologist feels as if he were taxing the
credulity of his hearers when he asks them to believe that they are
the works of nature alone, and not of some race of Titans."
The Vermilion cliffs derive their name from their color, which is
flaming red. They extend more than one hundred and twenty miles,
MARVELS OF NATURE. 37
and their height ranges from one thousand to more than two thousand
feet. Captain Button remarks : ** Their great altitude, the remarka-
ble length of their line of frontage, the persistence with which their
proportions are sustained throughout the entire interval, their ornate
sculpture and rich coloring, might justify very exalted language of
description. But to the southward, just where the desert surface
dips downward beneath the horizon, are those supreme walls of the
Grand Canon, which we must hereafter behold, and vainly strive to
describe ; and however worthy of admiration the Vermilion Cliffs
may be, we must be frugal of adjectives, lest, in the chapters to be
written, we find their force and meaning exhausted. They will be
weak and vapid enough at best. Yet there are portions of the Ver-
milion Cliffs which, in some respects, lay hold of the sensibilities
with a force not much less overwhelming than the majesty of the
Grand Canon ; not in the same way, not by virtue of the same ele-
ments of power and impressiveness, but in a way of their own, and
by attributes of their own.
^'The profile of Vermilion Cliffs consists of a series of vertical
ledges rising tier above tier, story above story, with intervening
slopes covered with talus, through which the beds project their
fretted edges. . . . Near Short Creek it breaks into lofty truncated
towers of great beauty and grandeur, with strongly emphasized ver-
tical lines and decorations, suggestive of cathedral architecture on a
colossal scale. Still loftier and more ornate become the structures
as we approach the Virgen River. At length they reach the sub-
lime. The altitudes increase until they approach two thousand feet
above the plain. The wall is recessed with large amphitheatres, but-
tressed with huge spurs, and decorated with towers and pinnacles.
" As the sun is about to set, the cliffs glow with an orange-ver-
milion that seems to be an intrinsic lustre emanating from the rocks
themselves. But the great gala days of the cliffs are those when sun-
shine and storm are waging an even battle ; when the massive banks of
clouds send their white diffuse light into the dark places, and tone
down the intense glare of the direct rays ; when they roll over the
summits in stately procession, wrapping them in vigor, and revealing
cloud-girt masses here and there through wide rifts. Then the
truth appears, and all deceptions are exposed. Their real gran-
deur, their true forms, and a just sense of their relations are at
last fairly presented, so that the mind can grasp them. And they
are very grand — even sublime. There is no need, as we look upon
them, of fancy to heighten the picture, nor of metaphor to present
38
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
MARVELS OF NATURE. 39
it. The simple truth is quite enough. I never before had a realiz-
ing sense of a cliff one thousand eight hundred to two thousand
feet high. I think I have a definite and abiding one at present."
The Pink Cliffs present a marvellous scene even for the Grand
Canon District of the Colorado. The verge of the precipice at
the foot of the cliff is eight hundred feet above the valley.
From this eminence the cliffs rise in beauty and grandeur, to
fill every observer with surprise and wonder. Captain Button
says : " The cliff is of marvellous sculpture and color. The rains
have carved out of it rows of square obelisks and pilasters of uni-
form pattern and dimensions, which decorate the front for many
miles, giving the effect of a gigantic colonnade from which the entab-
lature has been removed or has fallen in ruins. The Plateau Country
abounds in these close resemblances of natural carving to human
architecture, and nowhere are these more conspicuous or more per-
fect than in the scarps which terminate the summits of the Marka-
gunt and Parmsagunt Plateaus. Their color varies with the light and
atmosphere. It is a pale red under ordinary lights, but as the sun
sinks towards the horizon, it deepens into a rich rose color, which is
seen in no other rocks, and is beautiful beyond description." The
reader will understand whence the name given to the cliffs.
Dome and Towers is another view in the Grand Canon District that
baffles description. The Mu-kun-tu-weap, which is one of the princi-
pal forks of the Virgen, flows between mighty walls that are covered
with the most remarkable natural carvings. Mr. Dutton says : ''The
further wall of the canon, at the opening of the gateway, quickly
flings northward at a right angle and becomes the eastern wall of
Little Zion Valley. As it sweeps down the Parunuweap (the other
principal fork of the Virgen), it breaks into great pediments covered
all over with the richest carving. The effect is much like that which
the architect of the Milan Cathedral appears to have designed, though
here it is vividly suggested rather than fully realized, as an artist
painting in the ' broad style ' suggests many things without actually
drawing them. The sumptuous, bewildering, mazy effect is all there ;
but when we attempt to analyze it in detail, it eludes us. The flank
of the wall receding up the Mukiintuweap is for a mile or two simi-
larly decorated, but soon breaks into new forms much more impressive
and wonderful. A row of towers half a mile high is quarried out of
the palisade, and stands well advanced from its face. There is an
eloquence in their forms which stirs the imagination with a singular
power, and kindles in the mind of the dullest observer a glowing
40
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
MARVELS OF NATURE.
41
response. Just behind them, and rising a thousand feet higher, is
the eastern temple, crowned with a cylindric dome of white sand-
stone; but since it is, in many respects, a repetition of the nearer
DOME AND TOWERS.
western temple, we may turn our attention to the latter. Directly in
front of us a complex group of white towers, springing from a cen-
tral pile, mounts upwards to the clouds. Out of their midst, and high
over all, rises a dome-like mass, which dominates the entire landscape.
42 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
It is almost pure white, with brilliant streaks of carmine descending
its vertical walls. At the summit it is truncated, and a fiat tablet is
laid upon the top, showing its edge of deep red. It is impossible to
liken this object to any familiar shape, for it resembles none. Yet
its shape is far from being indefinite ; on the contrary, it has a defi-
niteness and individuality which extort an exclamation of surprise
when first beheld. There is no name provided for such an object,
nor is it worth while to invent one. Call it a dome ; not because it
has the ordinary shape of such a structure, but because it performs
the functions of a dome.
"The towers which surround it are of inferior mass and altitude,
but each of them is a study of fine form and architectural effect.
They are white above, and change to a strong, rich red below. Dome
and towers are planted upon a substructure no less admirable. Its
plan is indefinite, but its profiles are perfectly systematic. A curtain
wall fourteen hundred feet high descends vertically from the eaves of the
temple, and is succeeded by a steep slope of ever-widening base-courses
leading down to the esplanade below. The curtain wall is decorated
with a lavish display of vertical mouldings, and the ridges, eaves, and
mitred angles are fretted with serrated crisps. The ornamentation is
suggestive rather than precise, but it is none the less effective. It is
repetitive, not symmetrical. But though exact symmetry is wanting,
nature has here brought home to us the truth that symmetry is only
one of an infinite range of devices by which beauty can be materi-
alized.
" ' And finer forms are in the quarry
Than ever Angelo evoked.'
" The finest butte of the chasm is situated near the upper end of
the Kaibab division, but it is not visible from Point Sublime. It is
more than five thousand feet high, and has a surprising resemblance
to an Oriental pagoda. We named it Vishnu's Temple." ^
Mr. Button continues: "Whatsoever is forcible, characteristic,
and picturesque in the rock-forms of the Plateau Country is concen-
trated and intensified to the uttermost in the buttes. Wherever we
find them, whether fringing th: long escarpments of terraces or
planted upon broad mesas, whether in canons or upon expansive
plains, they are always bold and striking in outline, and ornate in
architecture. Upon their flanks and entablatures the decoration
peculiar to the formation out of which they have been carved is most
1 Capt. C. E. Dutton.
MARVELS OF NATURE,
43
f
44 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Strongly portrayed, and the profiles are most sharply cut. They com-
mand the attention with special force, and quicken the imagination
with a singular power."
Moving northward, with grandeur on each side, Captain Button
describes another butte still more surprising in its appearance, but,
for reasons not mentioned, it was not photographed. " The controll-
ing object was a great butte which sprang into view immediately
before us, and which the salient of the wall had hitherto masked. Upon
a pedestal two miles long and a thousand feet high, richly decorated
with horizontal mouldings, rose four towers highly suggestive of cathe-
dral architecture. Their altitude above the plain was estimated at
eighteen hundred feet. They were separated by vertical clefts made
by the enlargements of the joints, and many smaller clefts extending
from the summits to the pedestal carved the turrets into tapering but-
tresses, which gave a graceful, aspiring effect, wdth a remarkable defi-
niteness to the forms. We named it Smithsonian Butte."
Marble Canon belongs to the Grand Canon of the Colorado. The
illustration conveys to the reader as correct an idea of its grandeur
as can possibly be obtained without beholding the original. Button
says : " The Grand Canon of the Colorado crosses transversely the
four western plateaus of the district, while the Marble Canon trav-
erses the eastern or fifth plateau. The two canons are only nomi-
nally separated, for there is no gap between them. The Marble
Canon begins at the base of the eastern terraces. The Colorado
River, after traversing the central mesas of the Plateau Country in a
series of profound chasms, at length emerges from the echo of Trias-
sic and Permian age. Here for an instant the river is in compara-
tively an open country. But within a mile or two it begins to sink
another chasm in the carboniferous rocks, and in the course of sixty-
five miles the depth steadily increases until it becomes about thirty-
five hundred to four thousand feet. This is the Marble Canon. It
is a gorge of very simple form, and its width is about twice as great
as its depth. Its course is at first southwest, but gradually deflects
to the southward. Its lower end is arbitrarily fixed at the junction
of the Little Colorado or Colorado Chiquito, a stream coming in from
the southeast and entering by a lateral chasm as deep as the main
gorge itself. Below the junction the river turns westward, the walls
grow rapidly higher, the great chasm widens out to six or eight times
its width in the Marble Canon, and the valley of the river is filled
with buttes as large as mountains and wonderfully sculptured. Here
MARVELS OF NATURE.
45
MARBLE CANON.
46
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
the river enters the Kaibab, and its walls soon attain the altitude of
six thousand feet."
Kanab Canon is a division of the Grand Canon, possessing many at-
tractions in common with Marble Canon. The cut shows that its mas-
sive and towering walls must excite the wonder of men. Everything
about it is grand on a large scale. As an adjunct to the Grand
Canon, it is in complete harmony with its transcendent glories. The
contemplation is inspiring and elevating. A man is better for taking
in the sublime view. It awakens thoughts of the Great Architect,
whose handiwork is so wonderful.
fli
<
i
^
1
^r^r I
^
- :^ ^
i
WW^^i^t^^^^^^-
^^^':^;ti. l:^^^
^^
1
^■^.^^3
LAND OF THE STANDING ROCKS.
Captain Button writes : "A spectacle of this kind is most impres-
sive to the geologist. It brings into one view the co-ordinated
results of observations made laboriously by months of travel and
inspection in a very broad and rugged field. The great distances
through which the eye can reach, the aspect of cliffs towering above
and beyond cliffs, the great cumulative altitude thus attained, the
immensity of the masses revealed, the boldness of form, the distinct-
ness of the lines of stratification, and especially the brilliant coloring,
subdued indeed, but also refined by the haze, give to the scene a
grandeur which has few parallels."
MARVELS OF NATURE.
47
KANAB CANON.
48
^MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
Could anything be grander and more imposing than this " Land
of Standing Rocks " ? It is difificult to suppress the thought that
human industry and art have here reared vast granite temples and
towers, such as we read of in European cities. There has been no
touch of the artist to exaggerate the scene, for it is taken from a
faithful photographic view, and appears here just as it is in the
wonderful canon of which it is a part. (See p. 46.)
Albiquiu Peak is one of the most unique natural rock-formations in
New Mexico, and it becomes more interesting in consequence of the
ruins of an ancient pueblo which Macomb discovered on his way to the
ALBIQUIU PEAK
peak. He says: ''On the 19th of July we left Albiquiu for the
ascent of the Albiquiu Peak. The train moving on to the Aroya
Seco passed up the Chama to a point just beyond Albiquiu, and then
turned to the left and ascended, by a long and difficult road, the high
mesa which overlooks the valley on the south side. This mesa is
here full a thousand feet above the Chama, and is connected with
that of which the broken edge forms a bold headland below the
town, known as Albiquiu Cliff. The mesa over which we passed
extended, with a nearly level surface, several miles towards the peak.
Arriving at the western border of this mesa, we looked directly down
MARVELS OF NATURE. 49
into the narrow but fertile valley in which is nestled the little Mexi-
can village of Los Canones. Descending by a steep and tortuous
path, we left our mules at the bottom and climbed a detached mesilla
which stands at the junction of the two branches of the valley, and
on which is situated an ancient and ruined pueblo, once a stone-built
town of considerable size. Even its name is now lost, and of the
inhabitants whose busy hands constructed its walls, and whose feet
in successive generations wore so deeply the threshold of its entrance,
no tradition now remains. The mesa on which it stands is some five
thousand feet in height, and the top is only to be reached by a nar-
row and difficult path. The houses are now in ruins, but were once
numerous, and all built of dressed stone. Within the town we
noticed a dozen or more estujfas excavated from the solid rock.
They are circular in form, eighteen to twenty feet in diameter by
ten or twelve in depth. They all exhibited evidence of once having
been covered with wooden superstructures. In most of them, four
excavations on opposite sides would seem to have been used as the
sockets for the insertion of wooden posts, and in one is a niche cut
in the side, with a chimney leading from it ; probably the place where
the sacred fire was kept perpetually burning. The style of archi-
tecture in which the town was built, as well as the estttffas, show
that its inhabitants belonged to the Pueblo Indians, a race now
nearly extinct, but once occupying every habitable portion of New
Mexico."!
Mr. Macomb continues : *' Spending the night at Los Canones,
we started this morning very early for the ascent of the peak. This
we mostly accomplished on mule-back, passing over a succession of
hills composed of the variegated marls, — containing beds of gyp-
sum of great thickness, — covered with a forest of pinon and cedar.
When we had arrived within five hundred feet of the summit, we
left our mules, and commenced the ascent on foot. This part of the
mountain is very steep, and the upper two hundred feet is a perpen-
dicular wall of trap-rock. The summit we found to form a aickillo,
a narrow, knife-like ridge, bounded on »every side by vertical preci-
pices. Its height above the sea is about nine thousand feet. The
extreme summit is covered with pinon, and the slope with yellow
pine, Douglas spruce, the western balsam fir, and the quaking-cap.
The view from the summit was particularly fine, sweeping a circle of
fifty miles' radius, except towards the buttes, which are very near,
and fill the northeastern horizon."
1 These ancient races are treated at length in Part II. of this volume.
50
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Macomb says : *' Everywhere over the second plateau are scat-
tered buttes and pinnacles, wrought, from the massive calcareous
sandstone and the overlying Saurian beds, by the erosion which has
swept from the surface all traces but these of the immense mass of
sedimentary rocks which once covered it. Of these, one of the
most striking, seen from our route, is the Casa Colorado. It is a
detached butte, some three hundred and sixty feet high, composed of
sandstone covered with the harder layers of the Saurian beds. An-,
other symmetrical and beautiful dome, composed of the same mate-
rials, is lemon-yellow, with a base of red."
CASA COLORADO BUTT:
Macomb examined this butte (in New Mexico) in 1859, when on
his expedition from 3a.nta Fe to the junction of Grand and Green
rivers for the United States Government. It will be observed that
the height of the butte is just that of Bunker Hill Monument.
Captain Macomb writes : '' From the pinnacle on which we stood
the eyes swept over an area some fifty miles in diameter, everywhere
marked by features of more than ordinary interest ; lofty lines of
massive mesas rising in successive steps to and from the frame of
the picture, the interval between them more than two thousand feet
below their summits. A great basin or sunken plain lay stretched
MARVELS OF NATURE.
51
out before me as on a map. Not a particle of vegetation was any-
where discernible ; nothing but bare and barren rocks of rich and
varied colors, shimmering in the sunlight. Scattered over the plain
were thousands of the fantastically formed buttes to which I have
so often referred in my notes ; pyramids, domes, towers, columns,
spires, of every conceivable form and size. Among these, by far the
most remarkable was the forest of gothic spires, first and imper-
fectly seen as we issued from the mouth of the Canon Colorado.
Nothing I can say will give an adequate idea of the singular and sur-
prisins; appearance which they presented from this new and advan-
FOREST OF GOTHIC SPIRES.
tageous point of view. Singly, or in groups, they extend like a belt
of timber for several miles. Nothing in nature or art offers a par-
allel to these singular objects ; but some idea of their appearance
may be gained by imagining the island of New York thickly set
with spires like that of Trinity Church, but many of them full twice
its height."
*'A few miles north of Camp 39," says Captain Macomb, "is the
southwestern corner of the Mesa Verde, which stretches from this
point northward to our former trail, and eastward, forms the north
bank of the San Joan as far as the eye can reach. It has an altitude
52
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
of two thousand feet above camp, and presents, with its many
detached buttes and pinnacles, its long and lofty walls, a most grand
and imposing object. On the south side of the river, now quite near
to us, stand out in strong relief the picturesque basaltic pinnacles of
' The Needles,' while further south the view is bounded by the high
ridges of the Carisso and Tunecha mountains.
" From Camp 40 we obtained a nearer and still better view of
'The Needles.' This is a mass of erupted rock, rising with per-
pendicular sides from the middle of the valley. From all points
where seen by us, it has the appearance of an immense cathedral, of
THE NEEDLES.
rich, sombre brown color, terminating in two spires. Its altitude \^
about one thousand feet above its base ; above the river, 2,262 feet.
It is everywhere surrounded by stratified rocks, and its isolated posi-
tion and peculiar form render its origin a matter of some little doubt.
My conviction, however, is very decided that its remarkable relief is
due to the washing away of the sediments which once surrounded it,
and which formed the mold in which it was cast. In no other way
can I imagine its vertical faces of one thousand feet to have been
formed."
" To-day our course has been southeasterly," continues Captain.
MARVELS OF NATURE.
53
Macomb, " approaching the southern end of the Nacimiento, through
a region much like that of yesterday, except that as we have now
penetrated deeply into the Middle Crustaceous shales, the surface is
less broken, the hills being rounded, with long, gentle slopes ; the
timber has become more sparse, the country less picturesque and
inviting. We have here a fine view of all the interval between the
Nacimiento and San Mateo. In the west and northwest, high mesas
fill the horizon, forming the line of divide to which I have before
referred. Around the base of Mount Taylor, extending many miles
in every direction, is a plateau of trap, which has apparently flowed
CABAZON.
from this great extinct volcano, covering all the sedimentary rocks in
its vicinity. In the open valley of the Puerco stand many pictur-
esque trap buttes having a general resemblance to the needles of the
San Juan. Of these the most conspicuous, called by the Mexicans
Cabazon, resembles in its outline a Spanish sombrero, but is of
gigantic dimensions, being at least fifteen hundred feet in height."
The reader must bear in mind, as he examines the illustration, the
great height of this butte. At least fifteen hundred feet! A
monument of rock fifteen hundred feet high, and no art about it —
all nature !
54 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Most resplendent of all are the Painted Columns in this grand
canon, which Button, in his official report to the U. S. Government,
describes as "belts of brilliant red, yellow, and white, which are in
PAINTED COLUMNS
tensified, rather than alleviated, by alternate belts of gray. They
culminate in intensity in the Permian and Lower Trias, where dark
brownish reds alternate with bands of chocolate, purple, and lavender,
so deep, rich, and resplendent that a painter would need to be a bold
•man to venture to'portray them as they are."
MARVELS OF NATURE,
55
Mr. Cozzens, in his " Three Years in Arizona and New Mexico,"
describes the scenes in the district of the Grand Canon of Colorado,
which we transfer to our pages.
S6 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
These remarkable formations stand out bold and high, and are
situated on the " Santa Rita del Cobre," Arizona. The towers on
the right are singularly artistic, and yet they are not so marvellous
as the almost perfect barracks on the left. If men had no hand in
these creations, and invisible spirits were not the workmen, then our
material world must be under the control of as exact laws as the
spiritual.
Mr. Cozzens, who first brought these sandstone formations to the
attention of the public, says : —
• "We spent several days in this vicinity, during which time we
visited some remarkable sandstone formations near by. We found
about forty columns, worn by the winds and rains into most singular
shapes. One of them measured nearly sixty feet in height, and
more closely resembled an inverted bottle than anything we could
compare it to. At its greatest circumference it measured eighteen
feet, while at its base it was scarcely three feet. Some looked like
churches, towers, castles, or barracks, and others very like human
beings of colossal proportions. So striking were these resemblances,
that it was hard to believe the hand of man had nothing to do with
their formation."
The City not made with Hands, is also a sandstone formation
more marvellous than that just described ; and we are indebted to
Mr. Cozzens for the view. He says : —
*' Half-way across this vast sandy plain two or three blue specks
were visible, which, our guide informed us, were salt lakes; also,
that it was from the shores of these lakes that the Spaniards formerly
procured their salt, and even the present inhabitants used it to a
large extent. He said that in close proximity to these lakes was a
very peculiar sandstone formation, well worth seeing ; and, as all
were but a few miles distant from our direct route, we determined to
visit them. Bringing our glasses to bear upon that portion of the
plain pointed out by the guide, we saw what seemed to us to be a
large city, with its spires and domes and towers glittering in the
bright sunlight, and rivalling in splendor the creations of the genii
conjured by Aladdin's wonderful lamp."
The next day he and his party came into the immediate vicinity
of the glittering city. He continues : —
'' The next morning the guide called us to behold the wonderful
effect of the rising sun upon the city of enchantment that we had
seen from the mountain the day before. As we approached this
marvellous architecture of the elements, we could not repress excla-
MARVELS OF NATURE.
S7
mations of wonder and delight. Streets were plainly visible ; massive
temples with their spires and domes ; monuments of every conceiv-
able shape ; castles of huge proportions ; towers and minarets, all
58 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
formed of pure white silica, which glittered in the bright sunlight
like walls of crystal. It was hard to persuade ourselves that art had
no part in forming these graceful testimonials to the wonders of
nature.
"'Surely,' said Dr. Parker, 'this must be a city.'
"'Yes,' replied I, 'a city, but not made with hands.'
" Around the whole was a massive wall ten feet in height, with
arched gateways and entrances as perfect as it is possible for the
imagination of man to conceive. Entering the confines of this
magical spot, we were soon undeceived, for what in the distance our
own imagination had conceived to be enchanted ground, was, in
reality, a mass of white sandstone, worn by the winds and waters
into a wonderful similitude of a magnificent city."
Who wonders that explorers have become enthusiastic over the
wealth of scenery in the Grand Canon of the Colorado } that the
English vocabulary has been depleted of adjectives to express human
amazement and admiration over its revelations.'* "There are," says
Nordhoff, " Americans who saw Rome before they saw Niagara, who
saw Mont Blanc before they saw the Yosemite, and who saw the
Alps and the Pyrenees before they saw the Rockies and the Sierras.
Let them have seen all of these, with the Urals, the Andes, and the
Himalayas thrown in ; let them have seen the boiling geysers of Ice-
land and the belching craters of yEtna and Chimborazo ; let them
have looked upon the wonders of the Yellowstone and listened to
the roar of Niagara ; let them have traversed all the rest of the
world, and until they have seen the Grand Canon of the Colorado, the
world's greatest wonder yet awaits them. Imagine Mount Washing-
ton cleft from crest to base, and the sides of the chasm pushed apart
half a mile. Then imagine enough Mounts Washington, split in
like manner and put irregularly together, to form a zigzag gorge
three hundred miles long, and you have some idea of what this canon
is. Perpendicular walls on either side of the river five thousand to
seven thousand feet in height ! Think of it ! More than a mile of
rocky cliff towering above you ! Look down from the lofty brink, and
you see the river, like a silver thread, following the contour of the
mighty abyss. Look up from beneath through its mile-high walls,
count the stars at midday, and realize that a cannon ball would
hardly reach the lofty summit."
Captain Button, who speaks officially for the United States Gov-
ernment, says : " Those who have long and carefully studied the
Grand Canon of the Colorado do not hesitate for a moment to pro-
MARVELS OF NATURE. 59
nounce it far the most sublime of all earthly spectacles. If its sub-
limity consisted only in its dimensions, it could be sufficiently set
forth in a single sentence. It is more than two hundred miles long,
from five to twelve miles wide, and from five thousand to six thou-
sand feet deep. There are in the world valleys which are longer and
a few which are deeper. There are valleys flanked by summits
loftier than the palisades of the Kaibab. Still the Grand Canon is
the sublimest thing on earth. It is not alone by virtue of its magni-
tude, but by virtue of its whole, its ensemble ''
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.
We might very appropriately present the marvels of this locality
under the division of canons, since the mighty gorge of the Yellow-
stone is a cailon of surpassing beauty and sublimity. But an act of
Congress has set apart this domain for a national park, thus giving it
special prominence in the public mind, so that we are disposed to
give it kindred importance in treating of its marvels.
The National Park is situated in the northwestern part of the
Territory of Wyoming, embracing a small section of Idaho and Mon-
tana. Its area is sixty-five miles long and fifty-five wide, or about
3,575 square miles, considerably larger than Rhode Island and Dela-
ware together. It is surrounded by mountain ranges which lift their
lofty peaks from ten to twelve thousand feet above the sea.
Nothing definite was known of this locality until 1869. True,
trappers and adventurers went thither before that time, but their
reports were so incredible that no one believed them. Some of them
were wholly unworthy of credence, because they were the exag-
gerations of the imagination, as the following will show : —
*' In many parts of the country petrifactions and fossils are very
numerous, and, as a consequence, it was claimed that in one locality
(I was not able to fix it definitely) a large tract of sage is perfectly
petrified, with all the leaves and branches in perfect condition, the
general appearance of the plain being imlike (like i^) that of the rest
of the country; bict all is stone; while the rabbits, sage hens, and
other animals usually found in such localities are still there, perfectly
petrified, and as natural as when they were living ; and, more won-
derful still, the petrified bushes bear the most wonderful fruit ; dia-
monds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, etc., etc., as large as black wal-
nuts, are found in abundance."
Messrs. Cook and Folsom explored the Yellowstone country in
6o MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
1869, and their report of its marvels awakened public attention. In
1 87 1 Captains Barlow and Keep, of the United States Service, made
quite extensive explorations ; and the same year Dr. Hayden made
an extended tour through it, giving the results of his researches in a
report so filled with wonderful revelations as to greatly interest the
members of Congress. He recommended that the Yellowstone
country should be set apart for a national park ; and his recommen-
dation was adopted in 1872 with little opposition.
It will be seen, therefore, that the marvels of the park have re-
cently become known to the public. Singular as it may appear, we
have lived near this wonderful valley, and travelled around it for
years, and been ignorant of its wonders. The vast extent of our
country, offering such ample fields for exploration elsewhere, in the
interest of fortune or pleasure, is a sufficient explanation of the fact
that we have lived upon the borders of this fairyland so long with-
out knowing it.
An English lady, familiar with the finest scenery of Europe, wrote
home from this region of marvels : '' I am here in a place which,
singularly enough, they call Wonderland. Not that the title is by
any means inappropriate, for the place is, indeed, a land of wonders ;
but the coincidence, at least, is somewhat remarkable, for you know
what the associations of that word '■ Wonderland ' are to me. Well,
here I am, rubbing my eyes every day, to be sure that I am not
either in a dream or in a new world. You never saw, nor could you
ever imagine, such strange sights as greet us here at every turn. It
is not only that everything is big ; that is characteristic of the whole
country, everything in nature l^eing on a much larger scale than we
are accustomed to in Europe. But besides the Rocky Mountains
and a waterfall, — and a big one too, twice as high as Niagara, — •
there is the grandest old lot of geysers and boiling springs in the
world, and a river shut in for several miles of its course by moun-
tains rising hundreds of feet above it, — what they call a canon (pro-
nounced canyon), the walls of which are of such glowing colors that
papa said he could compare it to nothing but the most gorgeous
sunset he had ever seen."
The Mammoth Hot Springs are situated a thousand feet above the
banks of Gardiner River, into which their constant overflow runs.
They appear in terraces, tier upon tier, as if laid out by a skilful
engineer. The hot water takes up calcareous matter in its course,
and deposits it below. "The slow but ceaseless operation of the
springs has resulted in building up terrace after terrace of scallop-
MARVELS OF XATCRE.
6l
edged, limpid pools and basins of hot water, of varied size, form, and
temperature."
IVIr. Wisner says : " The ascent to the main terrace of active
springs is not difficult. Stepping upon the first of a series of broad
ledges which lead to the base of the terrace, the way is threaded
through a maze of rills of hot water over the low scalloped rims of
limpid, steaming pools, which it seems sacrilege to tread. The nov-
elty and magnificence of the scene are bewildering. Xot distance, but
62 • MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
proximity, lends enchantment to the view. The brilliancy and variety
of the coloring matter about the pools, as well as the delicacy and
beauty of the formations, are indescribably wonderful. Terrace after
terrace is thus surmounted, some of these eight or ten feet high and
several yards in width ; others are mere ledges. On each of these
levels the water collects in a long tier of nearly semicircular basins,
of different diameters, lying close together. The higher terraces
present an imposing front, the contour of their scalloped margins at
once suggesting frozen water-falls. Over the rims of the basins on
the topmost level the water generally pours until it finds its way into
the reservoirs next below, repeating this process till the bottom of the
hill is reached, where the flow is collected and carried off by several
channels to the Gardiner River.
"The deposits which result from evaporation at the margin of
each basin are exquisite in form and color. The rims are fretted with
a delicate frost-work, and the outside of each bowl is beautifully
adorned with a honeycomb pattern, while the spaces between the
curves are often filled with glistening stalactites. The coating of the
sides of the basins and pools takes on every delicate and vivid tint,
rich cream and salmon colors predominating, but these deepening
near the edges into brilliant shades of red, brown, green, and yellow.
The largest springs, supplying most of the water to the tiers of bowls
on each of the terraces, are situated on a broad, level space covering
some acres at the top of the hill. One has a basin forty feet in length
by twenty-five in width. Others are nearly as great. The water is a
turquoise blue, and so perfectly translucent that the most microscopic
fretting deep down upon the sides and bottoms of the pools is plainly
visible. This is the case with the hot spring-water everywhere. Its
crystal clearness cannot be described ; it must be seen to be appreci-
ated. The crust between the springs seems rather treacherous to
the foot, and it is impossible to get about without soaking the shoes
in hot water. Most of the springs have two centres of ebullition, at
which, doubtless, the water is at the boiling point ; but at the edges
the temperature is much lower. Around the hottest pools, in many
cases, there are strung along the rim, like beads on a necklace, a row
of nodules large as hazel-nuts and hard as adamant. The play of the
waters as they seethe up from the cavernous throats of the pools, and
undulate in miniature waves, is wonderful. The rays of light are
refracted by the agitation upon the surface, and are resolved into all
the colors of the prism."
There are a multitude of hot springs in the Park, many of them
MARVELS OF NATURE. 63
sufficiently hot for cooking all sorts of game. Tourists amuse them-
selves by pulling fish out of Yellowstone Lake, and without removing
them from the hooks, dropping them into a boiling spring near by,
where they are soon cooked sufficiently for the table. Nature's culi-
nary arrangements appear to be about as fine here as the wildest
imagination could invent.
Mr. Wisner adds : " This calcareous deposit covers an area of
three square miles. Of this, the recent deposits, on which the springs
are at present found, occupy about one hundred and seventy acres.
Along the river bank there are still many active boiling springs. For
a mile up the hillside there is terrace after terrace of extinct springs.
Then comes the principal point of present activity, which extends with
gradually waning power over a distance of a mile into the dense
woods on the top of the mountain. There are fourteen well-defined
terraces within the bounds mentioned, which are now, or have been
at one time, the scene of boiling-spring activity."
From the foot of the Upper Falls the river turns somewhat
abruptly to the left, pursuing its impetuous way through a pine-
clad gorge, over a rocky bed, towards the Grand Canon, into which
the Great Falls plunges with a roar and majesty indescribable. The
fall is at least three hundred feet, or twice that of the world-renowned
Niagara. Mr. Wisner says : "The scene from the brink of the fall,
looking into the profound depth of the canon, is of strange majesty
and indescribably awe-inspiring. A roomy platform at the edge of
the fall, with a staunch railway on the river side, affords a very good
view of the river preparing for its leap. The advancing volume of
water flows rapidly but solidly to the brink, and falls with a tremen-
dous shock into a large circular foaming caldron, bounded by steep
cliffs eight hundred feet high. The masses of water seem to break
into fleecy columns and sheets of glistening foam as they descend ;
but they nevertheless strike the surface of the pool below with a con-
cussion so heavy that they are forced upwards in fountains of spray
and clouds of mist which wash the sides of the canon, nourishing a
rank growth of mosses and algae of every grade of green, ochre,
orange, saffron, red, scarlet, and brown."
Mr. Gannett speaks as follows of the height of the falls : —
"My measurement of the Lower Fall was not as simple in method,
and allows more room for error than in the case of the Upper Fall.
I found a point by means of the clinometer on the eastern wall of
the canon, and very near the fall, at the same level as its top.
Thence I stretched the line down the canon wall to the level of the
64
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
foot of the fall, reaching it at a point so close that we received a
thorough drenching from the spray. Then, with a clinometer, I
GREAT FALLS OF THE YELLOWSTONE.
measured as accurately as j^ossible the angle of inclination of the
line. This gave as the height two hundred and ninety-seven feet.
MARVELS OF NATURE. 65
Though this result cannot be regarded as strictly accurate, still
its error niust be small, and, in round numbers, three hundred feet
may be regarded as a close approximation to the true height.
Ludlow measured this fall directly by means of a sounding-line, ob-
taining three hundred and ten feet as the height, a result agreeing
quite closely with mine, especially when one reflects on the difficulty
of determining when the weight was at the base of the fall, in the
cloud of mist and the rushing river. Most of the other measure-
ments are barometric. Such was that of Captain Jones, who gave a
height of 328.7 feet."
We are able to furnish a view of the Grand Canon of the Yellow-
stone where the waters of the Great Fall tumble into it. Let the reader
study this remarkable picture, to see what wonderful sculpturing nature
has done here, and what towers and pilasters and spires and pillars the
Great Architect has reared within this awful gorge. It is not only
the colossal grandeur of colonnade rising eight hundred feet and more
above the foaming cataract ; but all the colors of the rainbow are
painted upon those fretted walls, often blending in harmonious
shades, to vie with the finest work which the artist spreads upon
canvas.
Rev. Dr. Wayland Hoyt most graphically described the canon as
he beheld it, as follows : —
"And now, where shall I begin, and how shall I, in any wise,
describe this tremendous sight — its overpowering grandeur, and, at
the same time, its impressible beauty 1
''Look yonder — those are the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone.
They are not the grandest in the world, but there are none more
beautiful. There is not the breadth and dash of Niagara, nor is
there the enormous depth of leap of some of the falls of the Yosemite.
But here is majesty of its own kind, and beauty too. On either side
are vast pinnacles of sculptured rock. There, where the rock opens
for the river, its waters are compressed from a width of two hundred
feet between the Upper and Lower Falls to one hundred feet where it
takes the plunge. The shelf of rock over which it leaps is absolutely
level. The water seems to wait a moment on its verge ; then it passes
with a single bound of three hundred feet into the gorge below. It is a
sheer, unbroken, compact, shining mass of silver foam. But your eyes
are all the time distracted from the fall itself, great and beautiful as it is,
to its marvellous setting — to the surprising overmastering canon into
which the river leaps and through which it flows, dwindling to but a
foamy ribbon there in its appalling depths. As you cling here to
e^
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
GRAND CANON OF THE YELLOWSTONE.
MARVELS OF NATURE. 67
this jutting rock the falls are already many hundred feet below you.
The falls unroll their whiteness down amid the canon glooms. . . .
These rocky sides are almost perpendicular ; indeed, in many places
the boiling springs have gouged them out so as to leave overhanging
cliffs and tables at the top. Take a stone and throw it over — you
must wait long before you hear it strike. Nothing more awful have
I ever seen than the yawning of that chasm. And the stillness,
solemn as midnight, profound as death ! The water dashing there,
as in a kind of agony, against those rocks, you cannot hear. The
mighty distance lays the finger of its silence on its white lips. You
are oppressed with a sense of danger. It is as though the vastness
would soon force you from the rock to which you cling. The silence,
the sheer depth, the gloom, burden you. It is a relief to feel the
firm earth beneath your feet again, as you carefully crawl back from
your perching place.
'* But this is not all, nor is the half yet told. As soon as you can
stand it, go out on that jutting rock again and mark the sculpturing
of God upon those vast and solemn walls. By dash of wind and
wave, by forces of the frost, by file of snow plunge and glacier and
mountain torrent, by the hot breath of boiling springs, those walls
have been cut into the most various and surprising shapes. I have
seen the Middle Age castles along the Rhine : there those castles are
reproduced exactly. I have seen the soaring summits of the great
cathedral spires in the country beyond the sea : there they stand in
prototype, only loftier and sublimer.
'' And then, of course, and almost beyond all else, you are fasci-
nated by the magnificence and utter opulence of color. Those are
not simply gray and hoary depths and reaches and domes and pinna-
cles of sullen rock. The whole gorge flames. It is as though rain-
bows had fallen out of the sky and hung themselves there like
glorious banners. The underlying color is the clearest yellow ; this
flushes onward into orange. Down at the base the deepest mosses
unroll their draperies of the most vivid green ; browns, sweet and
soft, do their blending ; white rocks stand spectral ; turrets of rock
shoot up as crimson as though they were drenched through with
blood. It is a wilderness of color. It is impossible that even the
pencil of an artist can tell it. What you would call, accustomed to
the softer tints of nature, a great exaggeration, would be the utmost
lameness compared with the reality. It is as though the most glori-
ous sunset you ever saw had been caught and held upon that resplen-
dent, awful gorge.
68
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
" Through nearly all the hours of that afternoon until the sunset
shadows came, and afterwards, amid the moonbeams, I waited there,
clinging to the rock, jutting out into that overpowering, gorgeous
chasm. I was appalled and fascinated, afraid and yet compelled to
cling there. It was an epoch in my life."
Glass Cliffs are not usual. Sight-seers are usually satisfied with
sandstone or granite ones, provided they are tall enough. But here
are cliffs composed of volcanic glass, with a glass road along their
base. Nature made the cliffs just as they are, but ma^i made the
road of materials which nature furnished. Mr. Wisner describes the
cliffs thus : —
OBSIDIAN CLIFFS
" These cliffs rise like basalt in almost vertical columns from the
eastern shores of Beaver Lake, and are probably unequalled in the
world. They are from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and
fifty feet in height and one thousand feet in length, although there
are croppings of the same material to be traced as far as the
Lake of the Woods, two miles beyond. This volcanic glass glis-
tens like jet, but is quite opaque. Sometimes it is variegated
with streaks of red and yellow. Large blocks of it have been,
from time to time, detached, forming a sloping barricade at an
angle of 45° to the hot springs at the margin of Beaver Lake. It
was necessary to build a carriage road over these blocks. This was
MARVELS OF NATURE.
69
accomplished by Colonel Norris, late superintendent of the Park, by
building great fires upon the largest masses, which, after they had
been sufficiently expanded by the heat, were suddenly cooled by
dashing cold water over thern. This had the effect of fracturing the
blocks into fragments which could be handled, and a glass carriage-
way a quarter of a mile in length was made. Without doubt this is
the only piece of glass road in the world. Blocks of obsidian are to
be found along the Gardiner River for a few miles below the cliffs,
and the whole region from Paradise Valley, in the Upper Yellow-
stone, southward, is strewn with chips and pebbles of this material.
On the bays of the Yellowstone Lake, and in many of the clear
stream beds, tiny
fragments of obsid-
ian are to be seen
glittering like
gems.
" Obsidian is a
species of lava,
which, according
to Pliny, was first
found in Ethiopia.
The name, how-
ever, seems to have
been applied by
the ancients to
Chian marble, and
is probably a false
spelling of the
Greek opsianiis^
signifying to re-
flect images, be-
cause the Chian
marble was as hard to cut as
the volcanic glass and was
used for mirrors.
" The Indians used this glass in
TOWER FALLS. °
makmg arrow-heads, weapons, and
tools. Relics of this sort, which tourists find, seem to be made of
the superior quality of obsidian which was procured at the cliffs.
An impure variety, black, with white flecks, is common at other
points within the Park, notably near the Great Falls of the Yellow-
70 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Stone, at the cascade at Crystal Falls, near Shoshone Lake, on the
Continental Divide."
It is twenty-one miles from the Mammoth Hot Springs to Tower
Falls, and a very good wagon road leads thither. The distance
between the two localities is crowded with marvels, such as the lava
beds of Blacktail Deer, and other creeks. Hell-roaring Creek, Dry
Canon, and down the mountain slope of two thousand feet into
Pleasant Valley and Baronette's Bridge, at the forks of the Yellow-
stone River. ''The Falls are surrounded by columns of volcanic
breccia, rising fifty feet above them, standing like the towers upon some
mediaeval fortress." The fall is one hundred and thirty-two feet. Mr.
Langford, superintendent of the Park, says : *' Some resemble towers,
others the spires of churches, and others still shoot up little and slender
as the minarets of a mosque. Some of the loftiest of these formations,
standing upon the very brink of the Falls, are accessible to an expert
and adventurous climber. The position attained on one of these
narrow summits, amid the uproar of waters, to the height of two
hundred feet above the boiling chasm, as the writer can affirm,
requires a steady head and strong nerves ; yet the view which
rewards the temerity of the exploit is full of compensations. Below
the fall the stream descends in numerous rapids with frightful
velocity, through a gloomy gorge, to its union with the Yellowstone.
Its bed is filled with enormous bowlders, against which the rushing
waters break with great fury. Many of the capricious formations
wrought from the shale excite merriment as well as wonder. Of
this kind especially is the huge mass, sixty feet in height, which,
from its supposed resemblance to the proverbial foot of his Satanic
Majesty, is called the Devil's Hoof. The scenery of mountain, rock,
and forest, surrounding the Falls, is very beautiful. The name of
Tower Falls was, of course, suggested by some of the most conspic-
uous features of the scenery."
Lieutenant Doane, in his report to the United States Govern-
ment, says : "■ The sides of the chasm are worn into caverns, lined
with various tinted mosses, nourished by clouds of spray which rise
from the cataract ; while above, and to the left, a spur from the great
plateau rises over all, with a perpendicular front of four hundred
feet. Nothing can be more chastely beautiful than this lovely cas-
cade, hidden away in the dim light of overshadowing rocks and
woods, its very voice hushed to a low murmur, unheard at the dis-
tance of a few hundred yards. Thousands might pass within a half
MARVELS OF NATURE.
71
mile, and not dream of its existence ; but once seen, it passes to the
list of most pleasant memories."
KEPLER'S CASCADES ON THE FIREHOLE RIVER.
A marvel indeed ! It is one of the things of nature which can-
not be extravagantly described. After making large drafts upon the
'' King's English," there is still some margin left for accurate por-
72 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
trayal. The symmetry of these cascades is one of their chief attrac-
tions, so exact to the demands of Art has Nature been. Mr. Wisner
has the following about them : —
"These beautiful cascades are situated about two miles eastward
of Old Faithful Geyser. They consist of a succession of eight or
ten cascades of varying height, the highest, perhaps, fifty feet. The
water has cut a narrow channel through the basaltic rock, forming a
profound canon, through which the torrent frets and fumes in wild
tumult. From the best point of observation, a high and rocky
plateau some distance below the principal cascade, the scene is quite
romantic and picturesque. The foaming waters rush down the
gorge, roaring and tumbling against the solid walls of rock which
hem them in. The canon is very deep, and its sheer descent is
broken by rough and jagged crags which beetle over the stream.
Slender, symmetrical pines, straight as lances, grow on the brink of
the canon, and on the inclosing mountain slopes, as far as the vision
reaches. They also cling to every nook and cranny on the sides of
the terrible gorge, standing like sentinels on every moss-clad point of
vantage. Westward lie the purple mountains, majestic in outline,
and clothed with the virgin forest of sombre pine. In the middle
distance arise filmy columns of vapor from the geysers and hot
springs of the Upper Basin, floating upward, and fading into space,
as an incense offering to the Creator of the wondrously beautiful
scene. Kepler's Cascades are really quite bewitching in their loveli-
ness, the harmony of the picture leaving nothing to be desired, as
the romantic is here picturesquely perfect, the colors of the vegeta-
tion on the rocks in contrast to the foaming water delighting the
eye. The visitor reluctantly leaves this idyllic spot."
Yellowstone Park can boast of one of the most wonderful buttes
known, as the illustration proves (p. 73). Nature has built up here
a stone palace, of which Art itself might well be proud. It is remark-
able workmanship, when we consider that it was built without square
or compass or the sound of a hammer. Its size, form, and symmetry
impress the beholder as only a marvel can.
GEYSERS.
The geysers are the great marvels of the Yellowstone Park. They
are very numerous, and many of them are beautiful and grand beyond
description. The most important ones are found in "The Upper
MARVELS OF NATURE.
71
On the Line of U. P. Railroad
PALACE BUTTE.
74
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Geyser Basin," which extends ''from Old Faithful down the main
Firehole River to a point just below the mouth of the Little Firehole
River, and along Iron Spring Creek, a branch of the last-named
stream." This
basin is four
miles square,
but the chief
geysers are sit-
uated on both
sides of the riv-
er within a
half-mile. 1 1
is surrounded
by mountains
rising fifteen
hundred feet,
their sides be-
ing quite heavi-
ly timbered.
Here opens a
scene of splen-
dor. " Clouds
of steam hang
as a pall over
the Basin, and
columns of va-
por float up-
ward like water
wraiths from
between the
tree-tops of the
surrounding
forests. The
earth is full
of rumbling
and gurgling
sounds, and the
air is laden
with sulphurous fumes. Stupendous fountains of boiling water,
veiled in spray, shoot toward heaven, at varying heights, like cas-
cades reversed, glinting and coruscating and scintillating in the sun-
OLD FAITHFUL GEYSER.
MARVELS OF NATURE, 75
light until their force is expended, when they fall in showers of flash-
ing pearls with a shock that shakes the ground. Of course, the vari-
ous geysers of the Basin are never simultaneously in action. The
periods of eruption of each one of them are more or less irregular.
Many geysers which now exist will, doubtless, sooner or later cease
operation, and new ones will form to take the place of those which
dwindle away."
We rely chiefly upon the report of the United States Geological
Survey, under the direction of Dr. F. V. Hayden, for a description of
the principal geysers.
The eruptions of the Old Faithful geyser are so regular that a
favorable opportunity is offered the tourist for careful observation.
It played once an hour for the benefit of the United States Survey,
who highly appreciated their opportunity. It was this characteristic
of the geyser which led the Survey to christen it *' Old Faithful."
The eruption begins with from six to twelve spurts, continuing about
four minutes, growing more powerful, and then followed by a remark-
able succession of jets, accompanied by a startling roar and clouds of
steam, the water shooting upward into the air one hundred and fifty
feet at its maximum.
Lieutenant Doane, of the expedition, wrote :'' Close around the
opening are built up walls eight feet in height, of spherical nodules
from six inches to three feet in diameter. These, in turn, are covered
on the surface with minute globules of calcareous [silicious] stalag-
mite(.'*), encrusted with a thin glazing of silica. The rock at a dis-
tance appears the color of ashes of roses, but near at hand shows a
metallic gray, with pink and yellow margins of the utmost delicacy.
Being constantly wet, the colors are brilliant beyond description.
Sloping gently from this rim of the crater in every direction, the
rocks are full of cavities in successive terraces, forming little pools,
with margins of silica the color of silver, the cavities being of irreg-
ular shape, constantly full of hot water, and precipitating delicate
coral-like beads of a bright saffron. These cavities are also fringed
with rock around the edges in meshes as delicate as the finest lace.
Diminutive yellow columns rise from their depths, capped with small
tablets of rock, and resembling flowers growing in the water. Some
of them are filled with oval pebbles of a brilliant white color, and
others with a yellowish frost-work which builds up gradually in solid
stalagmites (i'). Receding still farther from the crater, the cavities
become gradually larger and the water cooler, causing changes in the
brilliant colorings, and also in the formation of the deposits. . . .
1^
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
The deposits are apparently as delicate as the down on the butterfly's
wing, both in texture and coloring, yet are firm and solid beneath the
tread. . . . Those who have seen the stage representations of
'Aladdin's Cave' and the 'Home of the Dragon-Fly,' as produced
in a first-class the-
atre, can form an
idea of the won-
derful coloring,
but not of the in-
tricate frost-work
of this fairy-like
yet solid mound of
rock, growing up
amid clouds of
steam and showers
of boiling water.
One instinctively
touches the hot
ledges with his
hands, and sounds
with a stick the
depths of the cavi-
ties in the slope,
in utter doubt in
the evidence of his
own eyes. The
beauty of the scene
takes away one's
breath. It is over-
powering, tran-
scending the vis-
ions of the Mos-
lem's Paradise."
Dr. Hayden
wrote : " With lit-
tle or no prelimi-
nary warning, it
shot up a column of water about six feet in diameter to the height of
one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet, and by a succession of
impulses seemed to hold it up steadily for the space of fifteen min-
utes, the great mass of the water falling directly back into the basin.
On the Line of U. P. Railroad.
BEE HIVE GEYSER.
MARVELS OF NATURE. 77
and flowing over the edges and down the sides in large streams.
When the action ceases, the water recedes beyond sight, and nothing
is heard but the occasional escape of steam until another exhibition
occurs. This is one of the most accommodating geysers in the basin,
and during our stay played once an hour quite regularly."
Bee Hive Geyser was so named because of the resemblance
of its cone to an old-fashioned straw beehive. Its cone is from three
to five feet in height, and five feet in diameter at its base. A mem-
ber of the survey party says of it : " Not one of our company sup-
posed that it was a geyser, and among so many wonders it had almost
escaped notice. While we were at breakfast, upon the morning of
our departure, a column of water, entirely filling the crater, shot from
it, which, by accurate triangular measurement, we found to be two
hundred and nineteen feet in height. The stream did not deflect
more than four or five feet from a vertical line, and the eruption
lasted eighteen minutes."
Another member of the expedition wrote: ''It is beautifully
coated with beaded silica. There is no surrounding terraced deposit,
as there is about most of the craters. This is probably due to the
fact that very little water falls around it. The orifice on the summit
of the cone measures two feet by three, and a line dropped into the
tube reaches a depth of twenty-one feet. Just outside of the cone
are several vents or steam-holes, one of which acts as a sort of pre-
liminary vent or signal for the eruption of the geyser. The eruption
of the Bee Hive is very fine and peculiar to itself, no other geyser in
the basin acting in the same manner. It is preceded by a slight
escape of steam in a steady stream of great force, much as water is
projected from the nozzle of hose used with steam fire-engines. The
column is somewhat fan-shaped, and keeps a high average height.
The ground is shaken during the action. The geyser acts certainly
once in twenty-four hours, and occasionally oftener." On the i8th
of September, 1882, the writer observed two fine eruptions with an
interval of only fourteen hours. The height of the column varies
from a hundred and seventy to two hundred and nineteen feet ; and
when the spray is between the beholder and the sun, a magnificent
rainbow is visible.
The Giantess Geyser has no cone. It is situated four hundred feet
from the Bee Hive, higher up, and spouts from the top of the
ground. Its aperture is twenty-four by thirty-four feet. The depth
of its basin is sixty-three feet. The eruption occurs once in fourteen
days, and it sends up a mighty column two hundred and fifty feet into
78
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
THE GIANTESS GEYSER.
the air, which assumes the
form of separate fountains,
one above the other. The
eruption is accompanied
with deep rumbling and
trembhng of the earth,
which is startling indeed,
especially in the night,
when its greatest activity
appears. Mr. Langford
reported : ** No water could
be discovered, but we could
distinctly hear it gurgling
and boiling at a great dis-
tance below. Suddenly it
began to rise, boiling and
spluttering, and sending
out huge masses of steam,
causing a general stam-
pede of our company,
driving us some distance
from our point of observa-
tion. When within about
forty feet of the surface it
became stationary, and we
returned to look down
upon it. It was foaming
and surging at a terrible
rate, occasionally emitting
small jets of hot water
nearly to the mouth of the
orifice. All at once it
seemed seized with a fear-
I ful spasm, and rose with
incredible rapidity, hardly
affording us time to flee to
a safe distance, when it
burst from the orifice with
terrific momentum, rising
m a
feet
column the full size of this immense aperture to the height of sixty
; and through and out of the apex of this vast aqueous mass five or
MARVELS OF NATURE.
79^
six lesser jets or round columns of water, varying in size from six to
fifteen inches in diameter, were projected to the marvellous height
of two hundred and fifty feet. These lesser jets, so much higher
than the main column, and shooting through it, doubtless proceed
from auxiliary pipes leading into the principal orifice near the bottom,
where the explosive force is greater. . . . This grand eruption con-
tinued for twenty minutes, and was the most magnificent sight we
FAN GEYSER.
ever witnessed. We were standing on the side of the geyser nearest
the sun, the gleams of which filled the sparkling columns of water
and spray with myriads of rainbows, whose arches were constantly
changing, dipping and fluttering hither and thither, and disappearing
only to be succeeded by others, again and again, amid the aqueous
column, while the minute globules, into which the spent jets were
diffused when falling, sparkled like a shower of diamonds ; and around
every shadow which the denser clouds of vapor, interrupting the sun's
8o
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
rays, cast upon the column, could be seen a luminous circle, radiant
with all the colors of the prism, and resembling the halo of glory
represented in paintings as encircling the head of Divinity. All that
we had previously witnessed seemed tame in comparison with the
perfect grandeur and beauty of this display. Two of these wonderful
eruptions occurred during the twenty-two hours we remained in the
valley. This geyser we named the Giantess."
The Fan Geyser is very beautiful. Its eruptions are frequent,
and last from ten to twenty minutes. It discharges five radiating
jets to the height of sixty feet, the falling drops and spray giving the
appearance of a fan. Forty feet distant, a rent discharges a great
volume of vapor, rising sixty feet or more into the air, attended by
loud, sharp reports. Lieutenant Doane says : —
" First the steam would rush from the upper crater, roaring vio-
lently, then this would suddenly cease, to be followed by a fan-like
jet of water rising from the lower crater to the height of over forty
feet, playing for perhaps two minutes ; then this would suddenly stop
flowing, and the steam would again rush forth for a time. Occasion-
ally the small crater threw a transverse stream, alternating with the
others ; and thus they played on for hours, after which all would sub-
side to a gentle bubbling."
Without absorbing more space on the subject of geysers, we only
add, that these considered are not, perhaps, the most marvellous ones
in the Park. Dr. Hayden claims that there are more than ten thou-
sand hot springs and geysers in the Yellowstone district. The illus-
trations furnished give a correct idea of the characteristics of all. So
that we only add a table showing the time of action of the principal
geysers in the Upper Basin : —
Name of Geyser.
Interval or Period.
Duration of Eruption.
Height of Column.
I. Old Faithful .
50 to 70 minutes . .
3 to 5 minutes ....
75 to 150.
2. Bee Hive . .
7 to 25 hours . . .
3 to 18 minutes
200 to 219.
3. Lioness . .
Not known ....
About 3 minutes
60.
4. Lion . . .
Not known ....
About 5 minutes
75-
5. Giantess .
6. Saw Mill .
14 days
Very frequent . . .
12 hours ....
250.
15 to 20.
1^4^ to 3 hours .
16 to 31 hours . .
About 15 minutes .
10 to 42 minutes
15 seconds to 5 m
95 to 200.
25-
8. Turban . .
m. .
9. Castle . . .
Once in 48 hours .
30 minutes
100.
10. Giant . . .
Once in 4 days . .
I Yi hours to 3 hours .
130 to over 200.
MARVELS OF NATURE.
8i
Name of Geyser.
Interval or Period.
Duration of Eruption.
Height of Column.
11. Young Faithful
12. Oblong ....
Very frequent . . .
10 to 30.
Once or twice daily
6 minutes
13. Splendid . . .
About 3 hours . . .
4 to 10 minutes . . .
200.
14. Grotto ....
Several times a day
30 minutes
20 to 60.
15. Fan
Three times daily .
5 to 9 minutes ....
About 60.
16. Riverside . . .
Three times daily .
10 to 13 minutes . . .
About 60.
A tourist says of the Geyser Basin : " It looked as if it had been
built up of old refuse matter from foundries ; as if for centuries men
had sifted ashes and thrown out clinkers and bad coal and waste
stones and junk and every conceivable sort of scorched metallic thing
into this chasm ; and as if several apothecary shops had burnt down
there too, for there was a new color and worse odor at every other
step. And the little guide, striking his cane or fingers into bank
after bank, kept bringing forth crumbs and powders, and offering
them to us to taste or smell, with, * Here is pure alum ' ; * Here is
Epsom salts'; 'Here is sulphur'; * Here is cinnebar'; * Here is
soda,' till we felt as if we were in the wholesale drug-shop of the
universe. Meantime, he skipped along from rock to rock like a
chamois ; and we followed on as best we might, through the hot
steam, which came up hissing and fizzing out of every hole and from
beneath every stone. A brook of hot water running swiftly over and
among rocks ; pools and cauldrons of hot water boiling and bubbling
by dozens all around ; black openings, most fearful of all where no
water can be seen, but from which roaring jets of steam come out, —
this is the bottom of the Geyser Canon. You think you will plant
your stick on the ground to steady yourself for a spring from one
hot stone to another, and down goes your stick, down, down into
soft, smoking, sulphurous, gravelly sand, so far and so suddenly that
you almost fall on your face. You draw the stick up and out, and a
small column of hot steam follows it. Next you make a misstep, and
involuntarily catch hold of a projecting point of rock with one hand.
You let go, as if it were fire itself. It does not absolutely blister
you, but it is too hot to hold. Your foot slips an eighth of an inch
out of the guide's footsteps, which you are following as carefully as if
life and death depended on it, and you go in over shoes in water, so
hot that you scream and think you are scalded. You are not ; but if
you had slipped a few inches further to right or to left, you would
S2 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
have been, for on each side inky-black water is boiling so that it bub-
bles aloud. All this while, besides the hissing and fizzing of the
steam and boiling and bubbling of the water which you see, there
is a deep violoncello undertone of boiling and bubbling and hissing
and fizzing of water and steam which you do not see, which are deep
down under your feet, — deep down to right of you, deep down to left
of you, — making the very canon itself throb and quiver. How thick
the crust may be, nobody knows. That it can be thick at all seems
improbable when, prick it where you may, with ever so slender a stick,
the hot steam rushes out."
A tourist remarked, after having taken in the pleasures of the
Yellowstone, '' See Yellowstone Park, and die ! " It is very foolish
advice ; for the man who has beheld its marvels ought to desire to
live all the more, to glorify the Great Architect, who builds so grandly
even where the wild beast only dwells. Looking '' through Nature
up to Nature's God" can be done easily in this "Wonderland," and
the overwhelming influence may help one to live better all his life.
See Yellowstone Park, and live ! is better counsel for the human
race. All of its impressions are grand and ennobling in the highest
degree, — just the inspiring elements which lift the soul into honor,
and beget lofty aims.
YOSEMITE VALLEY.
The marvels of the Yosemite Valley stand pre-eminent among the
wonders of the New West. Europeans who have explored this valley
are surprised that Americans should go abroad to enjoy Alpine scen-
ery, when California can introduce them to grander sights.
The Yosemite Valley was not visited by a white man until 1850.
Then, two adventurers penetrated it in search of gold mines ; and the
Indians, who held possession of all that region, murdered them. It
is only thirty-two years (1855) since a party of tourists entered the val-
ley. Since then, writers and painters from all parts of the world have
explored it, to tell of its marvels to astonished nations.
In 1857 Yosemite was formally opened to the public; and in
1864 it was set apart forever as a national park. It is situated one
hundred and fifty miles east of San Francisco, about midway of the
State from north to south. Formerly it was quite difficult of access,
but now it can be easily reached. A tourist writes of this valley of
enchantment as follows : —
''The Yosemite! As well interpret God in thirty-nine articles as
MARVELS OF NATURE. 83
portray it to you by word of mouth or pen. As well reproduce cas-
tle or cathedral by a stolen frieze or broken column as this assem-
blage of natural wonder and beauty by photograph or painting. The
overpowering sense of the sublime, of awful desolation, of transcend-
ing marvellousness and unexpectedness, that swept over us, as we
reined our horses sharply out of green forests, and stood upon the
high jutting rock that overlooked this rolling, upheaving sea of gran-
ite mountains, holding far down its rough lap this vale of beauty of
meadow and grove and river, — such tide of feeling, such stoppage of
ordinary emotions, comes at rare intervals in any life. It was the
confrontal of God face to face, as in great danger, in solemn, sudden
death. It was Niagara magnified. All that was mortal shrank
back ; all that was immortal swept to the front and bent down in
awe. We sat till the rich elements of beauty came out of the majesty
and the desolation, and then, eager to get nearer, pressed tired horses
down the steep, rough path into the valley.
" And here we wandered and wondered and worshipped for four
days. Under sunshine and shadow ; by rich, mellow moonlight ; by
stars opening double wide their eager eyes ; through a peculiar
August haze, delicate, glowing, creamy, yet hardly perceptible as a
distinct element, — the New England Indian summer haze doubly
refined, — by morning and evening twilight, across camp-fires, up
from beds upon the ground through all the watches of the night, have
we seen this, the great natural wonder of our western world. Indeed,
it is not too much to say that no so limited space in all the known
world offers such majestic and impressive beauty. Niagara alone
divides honors with it in America. Only the whole of Switzerland
can surpass it ; no one scene in all the Alps can match this so viv-
idly before me now in the things that mark the memory and impress
all the senses for beauty and for sublimity."
"Yosemite" is a chasm rather than a valley ; averaging one-half
mile in width, and from six to eight miles in length, completely sur-
rounded by a perpendicular granite wall from a half-mile to a mile in
height. At " Inspiration Point " the wonders of the valley burst
upon the view. If the tourist's head is level, he can look straight
down five thousand feet.
"Cathedral Rock" lifts its peak high into the air, and stands out
prominently in the grand panorama. The ** Rock " is two thousand
six hundred and eighty feet high, and its loftiest peak rises five hun-
dred feet higher, its magnificent proportions presenting a scene of sur-
prising grandeur. Six Washington monuments, one upon another,
84
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
scarcely cover the height of these tremendous *' Rocks." The writer
just quoted says : —
*' Here and there are grand massive domes, as perfect in shape as-
Boston's State-house dome, and bigger than the entire of a dozen
State-houses. The highest rock of the valley is a perfect half-dome.
CATHEDRAL ROCK.
split sharp and square in the middle, and rising near a mile (or five
thousand feet), — as high as Mount Washington is above the level of
the sea, — over the little lake which perfectly mirrors its majestic
form at its foot. Perfect pyramids take their places in the wall ;.
then these pyramids come in families, and mount away one after and
above the other, as 'The Three Brothers.' 'The Cathedral Rocks'
and * The Cathedral Spires ' unite the great impressiveness, the
MARVELS OF NATURE.
«5
EL CAPITAN,
86
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
beauty, and the fantastic forms of the gothic architecture. From
their shape and color alike, it is easy to imagine, in looking upon
them, that you are under the ruins of an old gothic cathedral, to
which those of Cologne and Milan are but baby-houses."
BRIDAL VEIL FALL.
Stupendous as ''Cathedral Rock" is, "El Capitan " is still more
massive and imposing. It is three thousand three hundred feet high,
aud projects squarely out into the valley, rising vertically. Not a
sprig or spear of vegetation appears upon its sides, only bare, rugged
granite. It is difficult to appreciate the size of this rock ; but some
idea of its dimensions may be acquired from the fact, that, in a clear
MARVELS OF NATURE. Sj
day, it can be seen from San Joaquin plains, from fifty to sixty miles
away. A writer says : —
" You descend by a zigzag trail to the valley. It seems like
descending into a grave. You feel imprisoned, for all about there is
no exit except over the precipitous sides. You are four thousand
feet above the sea, and nearly a mile below the surrounding moun-
tains, which environ this sombre valley. The trees look stunted.
They are two hundred feet high. The mere ribbon, the Bridal Veil
Falls, is found quite a torrent, and from the new view seems a single
fall of nine hundred feet. El Capitan, half-mile away, you think you
can hit with a pebble. Grasp its height ! It is giant masonry most
matchless, and for clean-cut bulk is without example. If it toppled
over, one hundred and sixty acres would be covered by the prostrate
mass. It is as lofty as the heaped-up spires of twelve Trinity
churches. St. Peter's is four hundred and forty-eight feet high. It
would take eight to gain the altitude of El Capitan's crest. The top-
most pinnacle of Strasburg Cathedral glitters in the sun four hundred
and sixty-eight feet above its foundation walls. It is less than one-
seventh as high as El Capitan."
Bridal Veil Fall can be seen so far away that it appears like a
mere ribbon. On approaching it, however, it becomes a torrent
tumbling six hundred and thirty feet at the first leap, continuing
three hundred feet more in beautiful cascades. On the other side of
the valley, directly opposite, ''The Virgin's Tears Creek" makes a
fall of one thousand feet. But this fall, unlike the Bridal Veil, is in
operation only a portion of the year, as the Creek dries up early in
the season. In volume of water, height of fall, beauty, and grandeur,
it is far superior to the celebrated " Stanbach " •of Switzerland ; and
yet it is hardly noticed by travellers in the Yosemite Valley because
there are so many grander ones. Bentley, who has seen the Bridal
Veil, with its majestic surroundings, at night, says : —
" Thousands of travellers and tourists make pilgrimage to it each
year, and yet no pen, brush, camera, nor tongue has ever, nor ever
can, describe it in all its variety of grandeur and interest, so satisfac-
torily as it reveals itself to the visitor. Who can paint its dark and
ever-changing shadows, sweetly nestling under those grim and awe-
inspiring walls ? Who can write the sweet, yet dream-like story of
its cascades, falls, and deep, crystal pools, among those cliffs and
rock-ribbed, sky-piercing gray giants, or set to music the plaintive
cadence of the summer wind through those proud pines and firs ?
Can you trip to step so fairy as yon meadow brook delights itself
88
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
among its bordering grass and trailing sedge, or laugh as it, as bound-
ing o'er each rocky ledge ? Did ever mirror give back beauty's smile
YOSEMITE FALLS.
as that mirror lake, or make grim mountain peak more grim ? Where
does early morning linger more lovingly, or evening shade more
grateful seem ? Oh, where does night seem more solemn than in
MARVELS OF NATURE. 89
Yosemite ? The roaring cataract, the foamy flutter of the ' Bridal
Veil,' gleaming like a silver band in the soft moonlight, yon lamps
of heaven glossed over by fleecy clouds, half secreting, now half dis-
closing, the tender murmur of balsam-freighted night wind ; gurgling
"brooklet, and shrill alarm of owl or dove, are of the legion of voices
in which kind nature salutes you in this valley of the valleys, Yo-
semite ! "
Niagara's descent is only one hundred and sixty feet ; that of
Yosemite is two thousand six hundred and thirty-four. Sixteen
Niagaras added together only equal the stupendous plunge of Yo-
semite Falls. It is the grandest waterfall in the whole world, when
the volume of water which it pours is estimated. Bentley's '' Hand-
book" says : —
''The Yosemite Fall is produced by a creek of the same name,
which heads on the west side of the Mount Hoffman Group
about ten miles northeast of the valley. Being fed by melting snows
exclusively, and running through its whole course over almost bare
granite rock, its volume varies greatly at different times and seasons,
according to the amount of snow remaining unmelted, the tempera-
ture of the air, and the clearness or cloudiness of the weather. In the
spring, when the snow first begins to melt with rapidity, the volume
of water is very great ; as ordinarily seen by visitors in the most
favorable portion of the season — say from May to July — the quan-
tity will be less ; still later, it shrinks down to a very much smaller
volume. The vertical height of the lip of the fall, above the valley,
is, in round numbers, two thousand six hundred feet. The lip or
•edge of the fall is a great rounded mass of granite, polished to the
last degree, on which it was found to be a very hazardous matter to
move. The fall is not in one perpendicular sheet ; there is first a
vertical descent of one thousand five hundred feet, when the water
strikes on what seems to be a projecting ledge, but which, in reality,
is a shelf or recess, almost a third of a mile back from the front of
the lower portion of the cliff. From here the water finds its way, in
a series of cascades, down a descent equal to six hundred and twenty-
five feet perpendicular, and then gives one plunge of about four hun-
dred feet on to a low tahis of rocks at the base of the precipice.
The whole arrangement and succession of the different parts of the
fall can be easily understood by ascending to the base of the Upper
Fall, which is a very interesting and not a difficult climb, or from
Sentinel Dome, on the opposite side of the valley, where the specta-
tor is at a considerable distance (two and a half miles) above its edge.
90
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
As the various portions of the fall are nearly in one vertical plane,
the effect of the whole is nearly as grand, and perhaps even more
picturesque, than it would be if the descent were made in one leap
from the top of the cliff to the level of the valley. Nor is the gran-
deur or beauty of the fall perceptibly diminished by even a very con-
siderable diminution of the quantity of water from its highest stage.'*
Bentley says : *' The Nevada Fall is, in every respect, one of the
grandest waterfalls in the world, whether we consider its vertical
height, the purity and volume of the river which forms it, or the stu-
pendous scenery by which it is environed. The fall is not quite per-
pendicular, as there is, near
the summit, a ledge of
rock which receives a por-
tion of the water and
throws it off with a pe-
culiar twist, adding con-
siderably to the general
picturesque effect. A de-
termination of the height
of the fall was not easy, on
account of the blinding
spray at the bottom, and
the uncertainty of the ex-
act spot where the water
strikes. Indeed, this seems
to vary in the Nevada as
well, although not so much
as in the Vernal Fall. To
call the Vernal four hun-
dred and the Nevada one hundred .feet, in round numbers, will be
near enough to the truth. The descent of the river in the rapids,
between the two falls, is nearly three hundred feet. Within the val-
ley are other wonderful falls, other stupendous cliffs, overtopped by
lofty cloud-capped mountains behind whose rocky shoulders slumber
great fields of snow ; while around are the highest mountain peaks
within the United States, a vast panorama of mountains, dark-wooded
valleys and smiling landscapes, everywhere."
The towering dome seen beyond the brink of the fall is " Liberty
Cap," in itself an object of surpassing interest in the Yosemite. Its
summit is two thousand feet higher than the fall, five thousand feet
above the valley below, and nine thousand above the level of the sea.
LIBERTY CAP.
MARVELS OF NATURE,
91
The '' Fall " and " Liberty Cap " together create a scene over which
painter and poet become surcharged with enthusiasm.
Sentinel Rock is shaped somewhat like an obelisk, its striking
resemblance to a watch-tower suggesting its name. The obelisk
form continues down one thousand feet from its summit ; and below
that point it unites with the wall of the valley. Its height above the
SENTINEL ROCK.
river is three thousand and forty-three feet, — one of the most majes-
tic masses of rock in the Yosemite Valley.
The illustration locates the Hotel Leidigs on a beautiful spot
which the towering sentinel overlooks from its lofty altitude.
Ludlow, in his "Heart of the Continent," discusses the process of
formation of these quaint obelisks as follows : —
" I ascended one of the most practicable hills among the number
92 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
crowned by sculpturesque formations. The hill was a mere mass of
sand and debris from decayed rocks, about a hundred feet high, coni-
cal, and bearing on its summit an irregular group of pillars. After a
protracted examination, I found the formation to consist of a peculiar
friable conglomerate, which has no precise parallel in any of the
eastern strata. Some of the pillars were nearly cylindrical, others
were long cones, and a number were spindle-shaped, or like a buoy
set on end. With hardly an exception, they were surmounted by
capitals of remarkable projection beyond their base. These I found
slightly different in composition from the shafts. The conglomerate
of the latter was an irregular mixture of fragments from all the hypo-
gene rocks of the range, including quartzose pebbles, pure crystals of
silex, various crytalline sandstones, gneiss, solitary hornblende and
feldspar, nodular ironstones, rude agates and gun-flint, the whole
loosely cemented in a matrix composed of clay lime (most likely from
the decomposition of gypsum) and red oxide of iron. The disk which
formed the largely projecting capital seemed to represent the origi-
nal diameter of the pillar, and apparently retained its proportions in
virtue of a much closer texture and larger per cent of iron in its com-
position. These were often so apparent that the pillars had a con-
tour of the most rugged description, and a tinge of pale cream yellow,
while the capitals were of a brick-dust color, with excess of red oxide,
and nearly as uniform in their granulation as fine millstone-grit.
The shape of these formations seemed, therefore, to turn on the com-
parative resistance to atmospheric influences possessed by their vari-
ous parts. Many other indications led me to reason down all the
hypothetical agencies which might have produced them, to a single
one — air, in its chemical and mechanical operations, and usually
in both. . . . One characteristic of the Rocky Mountains is the sys-
tem of vast indentations, cutting through from the top to the bottom
of the range. Some of these take the form of funnels, others are
deep, tortuous galleries, known as passes, or canons ; but all have
their openings towards the plains. The descending masses of air fall
into these funnels or sinuous canals, as they slide down, concentrat-
ing themselves and acquiring a vertical motion. When they issue
from the mouth of the gorge at the base of the range, they are gigan-
tic augers, with a revolution faster than man's cunningest machinery,
and a cutting-edge of silex obtained from the first sand-heap caught
up by their fury. Thus armed with their own resistless motion, and
an incisive thread of the hardest mineral next to the diamond, they
MARVELS OF NATURE.
93
sweep on over the plains to excavate, pull down, or carve in new
forms, whatever friable formation lies in their way."
Although the marvels of Yosemite fill us with wonder, California
has yet other sights equally novel. Her " Big Trees " must be
•classed with the wonders of the world. A journey from Maine to
California to see them alone is honored with interest by the sight.
Trees four hundred and fifty feet high, and forty feet in diameter,
must be cata-
logued with first-
class marvels.
They were dis-
covered in 1852,
and, soon after,
the hollow trunk
of one was for-
warded to New
York City, where
it was converted
into a grocery
store. We fur-
nish (p. 95) an il-
lustration of one
of these giants of
the forest. It is
no great matter
that a stage line
can find ample
room at the base
of its trunk, oc-
cupying only a
fractional part of
its diameter ; for
the tallest load of hay may be driven through the hollow trunk of
•one of these trees, thirty feet in diameter, if prostrate.
The ''Hotel de Redwood" was originally five hollow trees ; one
•devoted to office and bar-room, another to quarters for the proprie-
tor's family, and dining-room, and the remainder to lodgings, etc.
''The New West" contains a very interesting account of these
trees, from which we make the following extracts : —
"They were discovered in 1852 and named by Endlicher, in honor
of an Indian chief of the Cherokees. They are limited in range,
SECTION OF A BIG TREE.
94 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
being confined to California, and grow entirely in groups. Of these
groups there are eight, or nine if the Mariposa be considered as two.
Taking these groups from north to south the Calaveras comes first,
then the Stanislaus, Crane Flat, ]\Iariposa, Fresno, King's and
Keweah rivers, North Fork of the Tule River and South Fork of
Tule River.
" The Calaveras group is in the county of the same name, near the
crossing of the Sierras by Silver Mountain Pass. The belt of trees
is three thousand two hundred by seven hundred feet, and in that
space are ninety-two of the monarchs. The most notable being the
following : —
Height. Circumference.
Father of the Forest 435 feet no feet
Mother of the Forest 321 " 90 "
Hercules 320 " 95 "
Hermit 318 '* 60 "
Pride of the Forest 276 " 60 "
Three Graces 295 " 92 "
Husband and Wife 252 " 60 "
Burnt Tree 330 f I'g. 97 "
Old Maid
Old Bachelor
Siamese Twins ...
Mother and Sons ...
Two Guardians ...
" Here under the shade is one of California's pet retreats. There
is one fallen monster, which must have stood four hundred and fifty
feet in the air and had a diameter of forty feet. Another engaged
the efforts of five men for twenty-five days in cutting, and on the
level surface of the stump thirty-two dancers find ample room. Old
Goliah shows the marks of a fire, that, according to surrounding trees
untouched, must have raged a thousand years ago.
" The diameter of the largest is thirty-three feet ; the circumference
of the largest, five feet above the ground, sixty-one feet. This is the
only one more than sixty feet in circumference.
" The Stanislaus group, five miles distant, contains seven or eight
hundred trees nearly as remarkable. Crane Flat has those boasting
a diameter of twenty-three feet, and circumference of fifty-seven feet.
The Mariposa group, which generally divides honors with Calaveras,
is situated sixteen miles south of the Lower Hotel in Yosemite. A
trip to Yosemite is incomplete unless it includes a visit to both of
them.
MARVELS OF NATURE,
95
''The same wise
foresight which gave
Yosemite to the
State, gave Mari-
posa to be held in
perpetuity. The
grant is two miles
square. It has been
improved and made
of easy access. The
Tule River Groups
were the last discov-
ered, being found in
1867. While Cala-
veras and Mariposa
lead in point of be-
ing known, the
others are worthy
any reasonable ex-
penditure of time
and money.
"Gazing on a
mountain there
comes no thought
that it has been a
witness to the pass-
ing events of the
ages. But these
trees have shaded
races dead for hun-
dreds of years. They
live, and seem al-
most possessed of
minds; and when
those who now rest
under their branch-
es are dust, they will
still live, and future generations may conjecture who has seen them
in ages gone. They sprouted before the Christian era dawned, and
unconcerned they grew, while nations rose and fell. Who knows
what may transpire till when the earth shall tremble to their crash-
STAGE LINE.
96
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
ing fall ? Or how long shall their fluted Corinthiai. columns sway
grandly to the winds of the Pacific ? "
That a pioneer should set up housekeeping in the hollow trunk of
one of these big trees is not at all strange, for he has an ample tene-
ment there without the trouble of lathing and plastering. A hollow
tree, from thirty to forty feet in diameter, may be partitioned into
several comfortable rooms — space enough for quite a numerous
family.
We conclude our remarks upon these giants of the forest by an
extract from the pen of one
their
who has sat beneath
shadows : —
"Wild calculations have
been made of the ages of
the larger of these trees ;
but one of the oldest in the
Calaveras Grove being cut
down and the rings of the
wood counted, its age proved
to be one thousand three
hundred years ; and proba-
bly none now upon the
ground date back farther
than the Christian era.
They began with our mod-
ern civilization ; they were
just sprouting when the Star
of Bethlehem rose and stood
for a sign of its origin ; they
have been ripening in beau-
ty and power through these
nineteen centuries; and
they stand forth now, a type of the majesty and grace of Him with
whose life they are coeval. Certainly they are chief among the nat-
ural curiosities and marvels of Western America, of the known
world ; and though not to be compared, in the impressions they make
and the emotions they arouse, to the great rock scenery of the Yo-
semite, which inevitably carries the spectator up to the Infinite Crea-
tor and Father of all, they do stand for all that has been claimed for
them in wonderful greatness and majestic beauty."
"Trees of God ! " remarked a European tourist.
PIONEER CABIN.
MARVELS OF NATURE.
97
Professor Whitney presents the following table of measurements
of height and circumference of a number of the trees in the Mariposa
Grove : —
No.
Height.
Circumference
AT Ground.
Circumference
Six Feet
Remarks.
Above Ground.
12
244
62.
Very fine symmetrical tree.
15
272
Fine, sound tree.
16
86.5
...
Thirty-one feet in diameter;
hollow.
20
72.5
55-
Fine tree.
21
...
44.
Very fine tree; not swollen at
base.
27
250
48.
29
89.8
31
186
35.7
29.6
Very straight and symmetrical.
35
65.
50.8
38
226
27.
49
194
51
218
56.
39-
Very fine tree.
52
249
40.
Fine tree.
60
81.6
59-
Very fine tree, but burned at
base.
64
82.4
50.
Very fine tree.
66
221
39-8
69
219
35-7
70
225
43-9
77
197
27.8
102
225
50-
Very fine tree.
158
223
164
243
27.6
169
79.6
Much burned at base.
171
82.7
Badly burned on one side.
174
268
40.8
194
192
46.
Two trees united at base.
205
229
87.8
. . .
Much burned on one side; for-
merly over one hundred feet
in circumference.
206
235
70.4
216
63.2
Very large tree; much burned
at base.
226
219
48.
fine tree.
236
256
46.
238
57-
Twenty-six feet in diameter;
burned on one side.
239
,87
26.6
245
270
81.6
67.2
Burned on one side.
98
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
No.
Height.
Circumference
AT Ground.
Circumference
Six Feet
Above Ground.
Remarks.
253
74-3
60.
262
56.
Half burned at base.
275
68.
286
76.
...
Burned on one side nearly to
centre.
290
...
46.
301
SI-
304
260
93-7
Largest tree in the grove;
twenty-seven feet in diame-
ter, but all burned away on
one side.
330
91.6
Splendid tree; over one hun-
dred feet in circumference
originally, but much burned
at base.
348
227
SI-
THE GARDEN OF THE GODS.
"Have you been to the Garden of the Gods V This is a stereo-
typed question in Colorado. The ''Garden" occupies a place so
prominent in the public estimation, that a visit to it must not be long
delayed. He who fails to see it might as well fail to see the New
West, many would say. It surely is a place of transcendent interest ;
and is one of the marvels that will live long in the memory.
The '' Garden " is five miles from Colorado Springs, and about
seventy-five miles from Denver. It is reached from the springs by
what is known as Mesa road. For a mile or more the road ascends
the high tableland, when for three miles it crosses the almost level
summit, from which the ''Beautiful Gate" of the "Garden" is seen,
and then descends ten or fifteen hundred feet into Camp Creek Val-
ley. One mile further, along a lovely stream, and the tourist finds
himself in front of the gate.
It is not a gate of human workmanship. There is an air of the
artificial about it, because the massive portals seem to have been
carved ; but the workmanship is all divine. The plan, too, is divine.
The pillars of the gate, on either side, composed of red sandstone,
are three hundred and eighty feet high, — too high for any one but
the Great Architect to think of rearing. A beholder adds, without
MARVELS OF NATURE.
99
the least extravagance, "There is another parapet of white stone,
and inner columns of various colors, which might well be the ruins
of a vast heathen temple, or the shrine of the long-buried gods. The
impression produced by the ' Garden of the Gods ' varies greatly
with the time of day and the climatic conditions under vv'hich it is
seen. Immediately after rain its hues are deeper, and it becomes so
vividly red that an exact representation of it would be scouted at once
as a distorted vision of the painter. In the soft light of evening a
sagy green of exquisite delicacy suffuses itself over the vegetation
from which the rocks in all directions rise ; while the last rays of
GATEWAY TO THE GARDEN OF THE GODS.
the departing sun cause the enormous tablets of stone to flash out
with surpassing grandeur. As a rule, to see the garden to the best
effect it should be approached from Colorado Springs in the morning
and from Manitou at eventime. If possible, it should be visited at
both times, and also by moonlight, when the colors die away, and
strange and almost unearthly forms take their place."
Entering the portals, with Pike's Peak looming up in front, and
objects of the strangest and most fantastic forms appearing on every
hand, the thoughtful visitor is disposed to uncover his head as if in
the presence of the Wise Builder of this natural amphitheatre.
" See there ! V said our guide, pointing to a towering rock three
or four hundred feet high, "the bear and seal ; the bear taking his
lOO
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
ease, and the seal crawling up to keep him company." And, sure
enough, there was the menagerie on exhibition far above us, the two
aforesaid animals, in stone, appearing to be as perfect in form as if
carved by human hands.
'' And there is one of our ' boys in blue,' " continued our guide,
pointing in another direction. ''See that soldier yonder .?" It re-
quired no aid of the imagination to discover the soldier in a sitting
posture, as far up towards the sky as the seal and bear. Further
on, seeing a hideous-lookinii^ creature in rock, we asked: "That
monster yonder, —
what do you call him } "
The image was nearly
as big as Jumbo, sitting
upon his haunches, mi-
nus fore paws, but pos-
sessing a mammoth
mouth, wide open, as if
to gulp down the pas-
ser-by, and the large
eyes staring at us in hot
anger. *' There is no
name for that, so far as
I know," was the an-
swer. "Then call it
No Name^' we replied ;
"that would be appro-
priate. It is said that
tourists have given ^ ^
names to all these ob-
jects which are named, so we will dubb this nameless creature. No
Name." We had scarcely ceased discussing this last strange un-
couth object, when it was announced, "Here comes grandmother."
Turning to the right, we beheld a good imitation of an old woman, not
wearing a particularly pleasant countenance, nor apparelled exactly
according to the fashion of the times, but, nevertheless, about as
good an imitation of an Indian grandmother, with a pappoose on her
back, as the average sculptor can carve in stone.
We may add here a paragraph from Dr. Mary E. Blake, who
described her feelings after entering "within the gate." "The
impression is of something mighty, unreal, and supernatural. Of the
gods surely — but the gods of the Norse Walhalla in some of their
MARVELS OF NATURE.
lOI
strange outbursts of wild rage or uncouth playfulness. The beauty-
loving divinities of Greece and Rome 'could have nothing in common
with such sublime awkwardness. Jove's ambrosial curls must shake
in another Olympia than this. Weird and grotesque, but solemn and
awful at the same time, as if one stood on the confines of another
world and soon the veil would be rent which divided them. Words
are worse than useless to describe such a picture. Perhaps if one
could live in the shadow of its savage grandeur for months, until his
soul were permeated, language would begin to find itself flowing in
proper channels, but in
the first stupor of aston-
ishment one must only
hold his breath."
Says another (H. H.)
of the general appear-
ance of things in this
weird place : —
" You wind among'
rocks of every conceiv-
able and inconceivable
shape and size, from
pebbles up to gigantic
bowlders, from queer,
grotesque little mon-
strosities, looking like
seals, fishes, cats, or
masks, up to colossal
THE GRANDMOTHER. monstrositics, lookiug
like elephants, like huge
gargoyles, like giants, like sphinxes eighty feet high, all bright red,
all motionless and silent, with a strange look of having been just
stopped and held back in the very climax of some supernatural catas-
trophe. The stillness, the absence of living things, the preponder-
ance of grotesque shapes, the expression of arrested action, give to
the whole place, in spite of its glory of coloring, spite of the grandeur
of its vistas ending in snow-covered peaks only six miles away, spite
of its friendly and familiar cedars and pines, spite of an occasional
fragrance of clematis, or smile of a daisy, or twitter of a sparrow, —
spite of all these, a certain uncanniness of atmosphere, which is at
first oppressive. I doubt if one ever loved the Garden of the Gods
at first sight. One must feel his way to its beauty and rareness,
!02
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
must learn it like a new language ; even if one has known nature's
tongues well, he will be a helpless foreigner here."
We quote again from Dr. Blake : —
" Strange, grotesque shapes, mammoth caricatures of animals,
clamber, or crouch, or spring, from vantage points hundreds of feet
in air. Here a battlemented wall is pierced by a round window ;
there a cluster of slender spires lift themselves ; beyond, a leaning
tower slants through the blue air, or a cube as large as a dwelling-
house is balanced on a pivot-like point at the base, as if a child's
strength could upset it. ' But nothing short of an earthquake could
fetch it,' says the ' Doc,' our driver, a fine specimen of the western
type, keen, cool and ruddy.
Imagine all this scintillant
with color, set under a daz-
zling sapphire dome, with the
silver stems and delicate
frondage of young cotton-
woods in one space, a strong
young hemlock lifting green
symmetrical arms from some
high rocky cleft in another,
or a miniature forest of
dwarfed evergreens climbing
half way up some craggy pile.
This can be told, but the
massiveness of sky-piled ma-
sonry, the almost infernal
mixture of grandeur and gro-
tesqueness, are beyond ex-
pression. After the first few moments of wild exclamation points
one sinks into an awed silence."
Dr. Blake referred to a rock on a pivot, probably meaning " Bal-
ance Rock," as seen in the cut. It is a huge affair, and yet appears
to be so delicately balanced that a child might rock it. On trial,
however, it is found to be immovable — a very ponderous thing,
defying all attempts to move it. Quite an exact profile of '' the
human face divine " is seen on one side of this rock — eyes, nose, and
mouth very properly adjusted, while the chin is elongated into almost
too much of a good thing. The top of the head does not exactly
tally with the chart of the phrenologist, but it is quite in harmony
with the oddities and queer objects scattered about.
BALANCE ROCK.
MARVELS OF NATURE. 103
Dr. B. F. Taylor expressed himself very graphically over the
strange and fantastic objects in this garden, as follows : —
" Here is a park of five hundred acres of land, mountain-locked on
the north and west, moated with canons on the south, and walled
with red sandstone on the east, spread with grassy carpets here and
there, and dotted with little pines and other vegetable stragglers.
You approach a gateway two hundred feet wide, with red sandstone
towers over three hundred feet high, covered with sculptures that no
man can read, and massive and rugged as are no other portals in the
world.
" In the centre of the way is a red pillar twenty-five feet high,
which was probably the horse-block whence the Titonesses stepped to
the pillions behind their lords and masters when they went their
morning rides. You can see the walled-up windows whence the old
warders looked forth. You can see escutcheons that no herald can
make out ; chimneys standing alone ; towers dismantled ; alcoves,
broken arches, pinnacles, castle ruins, and all red as porphyry. And
a little way off you see parallel walls that are marble white, and show
in fine contrast with the cinnabar tints around.
'' Not long ago I saw photographs of the ruins of Ba'albek, and I
said, A greater than Ba'albek is here ; these Titanic castles and for-
tresses wrecked and ruined, and greater in their destruction than the
complete architecture of the Wrens and Walters of modern times.
Anybody can rear castles from foundation to turret, but only one
architect can build ruins so grand, and his name is Upheaval.
" Think of a multitude of stone toad-stools, six, ten, twelve feet in
diameter ; of Chinamen's hats done in pink, yellow, red, with mossy
rosettes ; of awkward sun-bonnets weighing two tons apiece, always
slipping off and never falling ; of stone bowls, big as cauldron kettles,
bottom side upon pillars ; of ogreish heads wrapped about with gray
turbans ; of loaves of overdone bread, two hundred pounds apiece,
set upon the rocks to cool ; of a crop of capped and hooded gateposts
waiting to be harvested ; of petrified dumb-bells such as Jupiter
might have practised with before throwing his thunderbolts ; of a
flock of witches in red tatters squatting around in dumb petrifaction ;
of masses of rock as big as a house poised upon stones the size of a
pumpkin ; of whole families of Leaning Towers — no end of Pisas —
accenting everything in a manner more emphatic than delightful ;
think of all these at once, and you will know something of this sand-
stone nifrhtmare."
104
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
Here is a natural curiosity — a hole in the rock, through which
a good view of Pike's Peak may be enjoyed. Dr. Blake calls it
"a window in a rock." It furnishes an interesting study for geologi-
cal explorers, as well as amusement for speculating tourists. Differ-
ing as it does from the other marvels of the garden discussed, it
shows that the collection which nature has made in this locality for
the entertainment of astonished travellers has a wide range.
We have spoken of the action of water in formino: such stone mar-
vels as we have de-
scribed. Prof. J.
T. Edwards, speak-
ing of "water as an
architect," says : —
'' In the divine
hand water has
been used as the
material with
which to shape the
earth, even as a
workman employs
his files, emery, and
diamond dust to
shape the objects
upon which he la-
bors. At first the
earth was charac-
terized by one
dead level — a
wide, desolate, fire-
scarred plain ; then
the mountains
were upheaved, the
depths were broken up, and, no longer resting in their quiet beds,
everywhere rolled down the slopes, and by mere attrition, wore away
the firm rocks and bore the material into the plains below ; all valleys
have thus been made. Some are still in process of formation. Far
out in the Gulf of Mexico, and in the Indian Ocean, the Mississippi
and the Ganges are pouring their sediment and building future con-
tinents. Sometimes, where the volume of water was great, or the
mountains steep, mighty gorges were carved out, like the river-bed
below Niagara, the tremendous cuts of the Congo, or the awful
WINDOW IN A ROCK
MARVELS OF NATURE.
105
canons of the Colorado, some of which are five thousand feet in
depth. Ceaseless waves beat upon the shore, powdered the rocks,
and made the soft beaches ; tides ebbed and flowed, and slowly
wrought their changes. In addition to the wearing action of the
water, which arises from the smoothness of its molecules, and the
CATHEDRAL SPIRES.
slight cohesion of its particles, thereby causing ceaseless motion, it
possesses a wonderful solvent power. Solution arises from the fact
that the adhesion between a liquid and a solid is greater than the
cohesion between the molecules of the solid ; whenever this is the
case, the latter will be dissolved. If water is heated, this action will
be intensified ; such was its condition in the early geologic ages, and
this explains the extraordinary rapidity with which rocks were then
Io6 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
dissolved. Beautiful grottoes were formed like that of Antiparos,
vast caverns, such as those along the coasts of Scotland, the Mam-
moth Cave of Kentucky, and the Wyandotte of Indiana. It is a
curious paradox which appears in this story of world-building, that
the New World was really the oldest in process of formation, and
that the tallest mountains were the latest upheaved."
'' Cathedral Spires," like the cut opposite, are found, not only in
the Garden of the Gods, but throughout this locality. They re-
semble the spires of churches ; hence the name.
A few only of the many remarkable and curious things to be seen
in the Garden of the Gods can be furnished in our limited space.
Enough, however, are furnished to show that, all in all, the place
was rightly named. From the point of entrance to that of exit, the
tourist finds it difficult to dispel the thought that human ingenuity
has gotten up this remarkable exhibition of statuary and architec-
ture for the delight of travellers. But then he reflects quickly that
DIVINE ingenuity will beat the human every time ; and he finds that
every word of Colorado's reliable historian, Frank Fossett, is strictly
verified : —
"The Garden of the Gods, so named from the grotesque and
gigantic rocks of red and white sandstone thrown into all manner of
fantastic shapes, and worn by the elements, constitutes one of the
State's greatest natural wonders. These rocks are scattered in pic-
turesque confusion from the enormous portal of the enclosure to the
lofty crags that rise on either hand. Some of these giant pillars and
cathedral-shaped towers are hundreds of feet in height, and altogether
form a scene at once weird and enchanting."
MONUMENT PARK.
" Monument Park," so-called, in its location and general features,
belongs to the class of wonders under consideration. It is situated
a few miles to the north of the Garden of the Gods, and is annually
visited by thousands of sight-seers. While it is not invested with the
interest and singularities which have made the latter place so re-
nowned, it nevertheless has much in common with that museum of
marvels, as the several illustrations we furnish abundantly prove.
These monuments are from five or six feet to a hundred feet in
height, and are numerous. A geologist says : —
" They belong to the cretaceous group of rocks. They consist of
columns of soft, white chalk conglomerate, capped with a hard ferru-
MARVELS OF NATURE,
107
ginous ore. The action of the elements for the countless ages of the
past has carved out these monuments, towers, and ruins for the won-
ders of the present day."
This writer claims that there are " no greater geological wonders
and curiosities on the continent " than Monument Park contains.
On Line of D. & R
MONUMENT PARK
This park is more distinguished for monumental piles than for gro-
tesque figures. Speaking of the latter recalls an amusing incident
that might be narrated here as well as any place. A tourist was
stopping at a hotel in Colorado Springs, and one day he visited
Austin's Bluff, a few miles distant. Near that place he discovered
a rock-rooster, as perfect, he thought, as a sculptor could make ; and
io8
MARVELS OF THE ^NEW WEST.
he bore it away in triumph, congratulating himself upon his fortunate
discovery. On reaching the hotel, and exhibiting his trophy, he was
rather dumbfounded by the bit of information, —
" Why, that is private property. The owner set it up by the way-
side for the entertainment of travellers."
" Is that so ! " exclaimed the tourist. '* Then I must carry it back,"
'' Of course you must. Mr. Austin's gardener put the roos-
ter on exhibition there. No wonder that you were surprised
to find so good an imitation of a rooster in stone up there."
The tourist made
haste to restore the
silent rooster to his
place on the rocks ;
but thereafter he
was often humor-
ously reminded of
his stone trophy.
The traveller just
quoted says : —
"Twelve miles
northward of Colo-
rado Springs is a
group of beautiful
small valleys known
as Monument Park,
from the great num-
ber of these strange
sandstone rocks. It
is the liveliest of all
lonely places. You
drive over a grassy
road in the middle
of a narrow green meadow, the sides of which slope up like the
sides of a trough, the narrow strip of meadow ending abruptly
at the base of high yellow sandstone cliffs, covered with pines,
firs, and low oak shrubs. There are frequent breaks in these cliffs,
and passes through them ; and so crowded are these passes and cliff-
sides with the yellow stone columns, that it is not at all hard to fancy
that they are figures winding in and out in a procession, mounting
guard, lying down, sunning themselves, leading or embracing each
other. Perverse people, with fancies of a realistic order, have given
GROUP OF MONUMENTS.
MARVELS OF NATURE.
109
names to many of these figures and groups: 'The Anvil,' 'The
Quaker Wedding,' 'Dunces' ParHamcnt,' 'Priest and Nun,' 'The
Duchess,' etc., etc. Photographers, still more perverse, have per-
sisted in photographing single rocks, or isolated groups, with nei-
ther background nor foreground. These are to be seen everywhere,
labelled, ' Rocks in Monument Park,' and are admirably calculated
to repel people from going to what would be some bare, outlying pin-
nacle of the universe, on which imps had played at making clay fig-
ures, with high stakes for the ugliest. A true picture of Monument
Park would give a background of soft yellow and white sandstone
cliffs, rounded, fluted, and grooved, with waving pines thick on the
top, and scattering down the sides, and the statue-like rocks half in
and half out among the trees ; and to make the picture perfect, it
should be given looking west, so that the green valley, with its fan-
tastic yellow side walls and statues should be shut across at the fur-
ther end bv a high mountain range, dark blue against a shining sky."
This monument stands
alone in the midst of trees
and shrubs, between which
there exists a seeming com-
panionship. It is larger at
the top than it is at the
base, and its whole appear-
ance is suggestive of a sen-
tinel ; not like the sentinel
who paces over his beat,
back and forth, in monoto-
nous measure, but rather
like the Roman sentinel
who stood at the gate of
his city, where he was found
a thousand years after the
eruption of Vesuvius had
buried its inhabitants under
molten lava, his skeleton
hand still grasping the gold-
en hilt of his sword, and his attitude and appearance indicating the
faithful sentinel. So stands this rock. Thus it has stood, no one
but God can tell how long.
Perhaps there is no sample of natural statuary in all this region
more remarkable than what some have been pleased to call "The
THE SENTINEL.
no
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Duchess." Royal as well as delicate in-appearance, it is certainly a mar-
vel of the highest class, inviting not only admiration but study as well.
The reader must admit that no traveller quoted has been extrava-
gant in his description of the Garden of the Gods and Monument
Park. The illustrations furnished are quite sufficient to show that
nature has provided very remarkable collections of natural objects in
these localities. If any of the writers have allowed the imagination
to give peculiar coloring to their descriptions, it has been only the
inspiration of the place and
occasion. He must possess
an exceeding sluggish soul
who could mingle in sucli
scenes without becoming-
enthusiastic. If accustomed
to make pen-pictures, he
must be moved to make
them in these noted resorts
if ever. To be silent before
this panorama of marvels,
and allow the pen to mope
or plod where nature eclip-
ses art, and a thousand voi-
ces swell the praises of
Him who gives tact and tal-
ent to both painter and
sculptor, would be unnatu-
ral and irreverent. The ap-
peal is to all the powers of
the soul ; and though all of them be enlisted to describe the scenes
enumerated, exaggeration is impossible.
THE DUCHESS.
"MISCELLANEOUS.
Shoshone Falls are on Snake River, in the Territory of Idaho.
They are grand to the last degree. Exaggeration is impossible here.
No writer can really do them justice. The granite walls, back of the
roaring falls, rise like palaces, mosques, or magnificent fortifications.
A writer who visited this famous waterfall furnishes a graphic de-
scription, from which we extract the following : —
" It was only a few rods of easy walking, when, piercing a border
of fir, a rest was taken on Point Lookout. Just then the sun broke
MARVELS OF NATURE.
1 1
112
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
forth in renewed radiance, and from cliff to cliff there sprang a bow
as perfect as ever was glorious in the heavens, — an arc of beauteous
coloring against a background of glittering, bead-like foam, tumbling in
crystal chaos two hundred and twenty feet. The circling halo lost its
bases in the tumult and the mist, but its crescent was unbroken above.
'' Niagara is different, but is not superior. Where that is calm,
Shoshone is tempestuous. Where that pours over evenly, Shoshone
bursts into a million wild jets, each with a diamond's lustre. Where
that is environed by commonplace landscape, Shoshone dashes from
between rocks, stately and time-stained, and nearly a thousand feet
high. From Point Lookout the view is unobstructed, not only of
SAN PEDRO'S WIFE; OR, THE WOMAN OF THE PERIOD
the falls, but farther back, where the boat has often crossed. Seven
distinct channels are to be seen, forming a number of preliminary
falls, before, finally there is a grand reunion of the waters : and so
united, over they go to be lost in the rage of a terrible surge, to riot
in an infuriate whirlpool, and to rise soft as the feather of a bird, and
be touched by the sun to splendor, and fall like a blessing of nature
on the brow of the awed beholder. . . .
'•Think of seven hundred and fifty feet front of a maddened — it
almost seems malignant — torrent, devilish in the delight it takes in
sweeping with a rush nothing but the eternal rocks could withstand ;
torn and tossed into billions of sparkling threads, with a constant
play of prismatic hues, changing quicker than thought, half envel-
MARVELS OF NATURE. II3
oped in its own mist, and then the wind carrying that away, leav-
ing it unobscured in sublimity, unmatched and indescribable. Long
the eye drinks here of the vials of wonder; and after the sight
has become a memory, still the voice of the Great Unknown will
seem to break in again upon the soul, just as it does when the uproar
is deafening, and, by its very presence, turns one towards better and
stronger things."
" San Pedro's Wife ; or. The Woman of the Period," is a nat-
ural statue, and is situated near San Pedro Point, about three
hundred miles from San Francisco. It is a remarkable object, and the
name with which it has been christened is quite appropriate. Were
a light to be set on the head of this stone woman, it would become
the most unique and fantastic lighthouse ever known. It seems like
a hint, in itself, to our enterprising race, to complete the work of na-
ture by adding an uplifted arm, holding a flaming torch in the hand,
that its flashing light may prove a benediction to unwary steps or
belated vessels. From head to feet this singular rock-formation
reflects much credit upon the elements which have done so excellent
carving.
" Donner Lake," as shown on the following page, is situated on
the summit of Sierra Nevada Mountains, eight or ten thousand feet
above the level of the sea. It is a wonderfully clear and beautiful
sheet of water, very deep and still, and is called, "• The Gem of the
Sierras." Located on a mountain-summit is sufficient of itself to
invest the lake with novelty and romance. Such a phenomenon is
confined to the Rocky Mountains, and is therefore rare.
The name of the lake, however, is derived from an appalling
calamity which occurred upon its borders in 1846. A family by the
name of Donner was crossing the Sierras when the first snow-storm
of winter burst upon them. The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs.
Donner and four children, with several servants, who assisted to drive
a small herd of cattle. They had reached the lake, and had camped
for the night, when a wild storm, such as that mountain region alone
knows, struck them in its fury. On the following morning two feet
of snow covered the trail, and the unabated storm continued to add
rapidly to its depth. Mr. Donner was too unwell to go forward, but
he put the children upon the horses, and started them off under the
care of servants, hoping they might cross the mountains in safety.
Mr. Donner's wife and a German servant remained with him. Most of
the cattle stampeded during the night, terrified by the howling storm.
To make a long and appalling story short, it must suffice to say
114
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
that the storm continued fifteen or twenty days, until thirty feet of
snow covered the vast wilderness. The children, however, under the
guide and protection of the brave servants, succeeded in crossing the
mountains after hardships and much suffering, and reached comforta-
MARVELS OF NATURE.
115
Me quarters. But a searching party did not dare to penetrate to the
lake until spring returned ; and when they reached the rudely con-
structed cabin, a terrible sight met them. Mr. Donner and his wife
were dead, and the German, now a raving maniac, sat before the fire
•devouring a wasted
human arm. He was
seized, and, after a
fearful struggle, was
secured ; and he final-
ly recovered to tell
the story of that win-
ter's sufferings, al-
most without a paral-
lel in history.
The Multnomah
Falls is one of the
marvels that delight
the traveller after
leaving Bonneville.
Its water plunges
down eight hundred
feet, the same dis-
tance as the Oneonta
Falls in the same vi-
cinity. The Multno-
mah water strikes a
ledge about two-
thirds of the distance
•down, then, gather-
ing itself up, it makes
another plunge into
the abyss below.
Scarcely any scene
could be more novel
and beautiful than
this. In the distance
the falling sheet of water appears like a wide silver ribbon spark-
ling in the sun.
The Pillars of Hercules are found on the Columbia River, a few
miles from Multnomah Falls — another of the many marvels on the
northern route to the Pacific slope. They are colossal, and the
MULTNOMAH FALLS.
ii6
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
PILLARS OF HERCULES.
These pil-
Northern Pacific Railroad passes directly between them,
lars awaken the wonder of men. A writer says : —
" How God's hand built them, — not in a manner of slow-mountmg
masonry, gaining adventurously and toilsomely, foot by foot, and
pushing its scaffolding ever higher to keep command of the work,
and straining its energy to raising aloft the chiselled and ponderous.
MARVELS OF NATURE.
117
Il8 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
blocks to their place, — but with one lift, without break or course, or
any gradations of rising completeness, the Supreme Builder set the
domed mountains in their place — foundation, wall, and top stone —
one sublime integral whole, unprofaned by craftsman's tools, untrod
by foot of man."
Pyramid Park is on the line of the Northern Pacific Railway, and
its name is derived from the interesting rock formations therein.
Professor Denton says : " Such a valley containing myriads of mounds,
buttes, pyramids, pinnacles, forts, and turrets. Here are canons,
ravines, gulches, and perpendicular precipices ; pyramids with brown
and blue bases, and vermilion tops ; towers with unscalable walls that
defy the earth-ransacking geologist — mounds of all sizes from ant
hills to respectable mountains ; mounds single, twin, triple, and mul-
tiple ; mounds with yellow bases, white girdles, and blood-red caps ;
mounds green, drab, white, blue, red, and mottled ; truncated mounds
with mounds on them ; mounds beyond mounds like ocean waves lost
in distance ; but interspersed with all these are beautiful slopes many
acres in extent, green as emerald, and lovely spots covered with
fragrant ground juniper, fit carpet for a queen." Another says : —
" It is in Pyramid Park that the most fantastic shapes appear.
Every form of man or beast the broad empire of Rome could furnish,
is here carved by the elements and placed in one long gallery of art.
Monuments, cathedrals, pyramids, cones, and houses appear like
excavations of a buried city. . . . As the train rolls swiftly through
the park, we give our imagination full play, and find shapes the most
grotesque and ludicrous, combined with others of imposing form,
presenting a combination of which we never tire."
On the left of the illustration is a mammoth rock rising two or
three hundred feet, presenting the appearance of a large cathedral.
The resemblance is so striking that it is called "The Cathedral."
On a line with the Cathedral to the right are " Monument Rocks " of
various heights. Below is a rock formation which a tourist has very
properly named " The Hag." It is worthy of the name, as the reader
will find by a little study. At the left is "Watch Dog Butte," a
lofty eminence on which nature has perched what appears to be a
real terrier.
The illustration on the following page is that of a remarkable butte
overlooking Green River City. It is built up of solid masonry, such
as nature provides, and is surrounded by a massive monumental pile,
resembling a public edifice of some sort. In its proportions, as well
as its plan, it is unique and imposing. It stands sentinel over the
MARVELS OF NATURE.
119
:M
iii
little city which nestles under its shadow, between its base and the
river. Altogether, this butte and its surroundings presents a scene
which, in some particulars, can scarcely be matched in the whole
120
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
land. The artist could not pass it without stopping to make a faith
ful sketch.
"Wagon Wheel Gap" is located in Southwestern Colorado, on
the Rio Grande Del Norte, twenty-nine miles west of Del Norte, and
MARVELS OF NATURE.
121
122
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
sixty-nine from Alimosa. It is in a chasm of the mountain range,
which extends a hundred miles north and south, a gateway cut by
rushing waters sometime in the past centuries, with vertical cliffs
shooting upwards from five hundred to fifteen hundred feet.' The place
is called *' Wagon Wheel Gap " in consequence of decaying wheels
and other trumpery
found there by pioneers,
a few years since. At
first, it was supposed
the relics discovered
were all that remained
of an exploring party
massacred by Indians.
It was subsequently
found, however, that
Fremont wintered there
once in his explorations,
and was obliged to aban-
don his wagons and most
of his outfit to save his
party from starvation
and death.
The illustration on
the preceding page rep-
resents the scene that
opens to the tourist as
the railway train, which
follows along the river,
moves into the gap and
up to the station. On
the right hand, the pali-
sades or mountains of
rock rise from twelve
hundred to fifteen hun-
dred feet above the track, continuing their wavy line of unsurpassed
grandeur for several miles. These stupendous walls are of reddish
gray sandstone, with only room enough at their base for the river and
railway. On the left hand of the track, the mountains rise over
twenty-three hundred feet in solemn majesty above the track. The
whole scene is one of unparalleled majesty. The beholder alone
can fully appreciate it.
RHODA'S ARCH.
Sawatch Range, South River, near Antelope Park.
MARVELS OF NATURE,
23
Castellated Rocks rise several hundred feet along the banks of
the river, and extend for miles. They present one of the grand-*
est spectacles which the tourist enjoys in the New West. They
are called "The Green River Shales," and their prevailing color is
a grayish buff. Other colors, as red, green, and white, mingle here
and there, contributing beauty to the imposing scene. Like huge
walls of granite, laid block upon block in symmetrical proportions
until they tower higher than • the tallest church spire in the land,
these castellated rocks challenge the surprise and wonder of men.
Rhoda's Arch is symmetrical and finished as if planned and
wrought by human skill. Its surroundings are peculiarly impressive.
g-^:,s^:^^sJA^^_-fcTi
GRAND COULEE, W. T
Stone monuments stand around, some tall and capped, others rising
in sharp pinnacles — all seeming to belong to the same class of
wonders as the arch itself. It is a rare spectacle, one of the novel
scenes that will live in memory.
There is no greater marvel in Washington Territory than the
''* Grand Coulee," represented above. It has been called a " deep crack
in the surface of the earth " ; but we shall call it a canon ninety miles
long, with basaltic walls rising perpendicularly four hundred feet,
higher than Bunker Hill Monument. It is a spectacle which never
loses its hold upon the memory.
About half-way through the valley the walls are broken down, so
24
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
MARVELS OF NATURE.
25
that wagons can pass over it comfortably. " From this crossing the
Coulee slopes both ways, north to its mouth in the gorge of the
Columbia, and southeast to broaden out and encircle a chain of lakes,
and finally to disappear in the great sandy plain near the junction
of the Snake and Columbia rivers." This canon is strewn with
volcanic debids, imparting to it a very weird and desolate appear-
ance.
''The Valley of the Laughing Waters," in Utah, contains scenes of
picturesque beauty and awe-inspiring grandeur unsurpassed in the
world. The full-page il-
lustration represents a
rocky region where
some of the most re-
markable feats of na-
ture are found. Rocks
of fantastic forms, often
massive and phenome-
nal, meet the eye on
every hand. Perhaps
there are no objects
in Yosemite grander
than many to be seen
in this locality. It has
not the beautiful and
grand waterfalls of the
Yosemite, but in other
particulars it is a wor-
thy rival of that world-
renowned ''Wonder-
land." Towers and
pinnacles of rock rise
into the air like the
spires and turrets of an
Eastern city, and majestic cliffs challenge the admiration and wonder
of travellers at every step.
The " Church, Castle and Tower " is on the Missouri River, Mon-
tana, and derives its name from the remarkable rock-formations on
the sides of the mountains. On the left stands the stone church, sit-
uated on a lofty eminence, with spire and turrets of more symmetrical
proportions than those of many church edifices reared by art. On
the right, as well as in the centre, are massive structures, having the
INDIAN ROCK.
126
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
MARVELS OF NATURE.
^7
appearance of natural fortresses, built, or rather grown, in mountain
fastnesses, impregnable and wonderful.
" Indian Rock " is situated on an island in Columbia River, four
miles from Celilo. Its name is derived from the profile of an Indian
face, so conspicuous on its wall. From time immemorial the Indians
have worshipped the profile, and have called it " The Great Spirit of
the Columbia." It can be seen from the deck of a steamer passing
through the old channel on the southwest, and also by the use of a
OLD WOMAN OF THE MOUNTAIN.
glass from the line of the O. R. & N. Co., two miles below. It is
difficult to approach the island on account of the rapid current, which
fact adds to the superstitious notions of the Indians, who were wont to
risk their lives once a year to worship the Indian face on the rock.
None of them ever ventured to live upon the island. The rock is a
basaltic ridge, extending five hundred feet in length, and rising high
into the air.
The above scene is located in Montana, near Helena. The
Northern Pacific Railway runs near by, although the " Old Woman "
in granite cannot be seen from the train. It is one of the grandest
localities on the line of the Northern Pacific, near where the tortuous
128 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
railway descends into the valley below. The whole region is crowded
with objects of interest, none more so than the singular rock-forma-
tions of which the "Old Woman" is one. The reader will agree
with us that this rock was correctly named, its form showing a very
striking resemblance to an aged female.
We interject the statement here, that, in addition to the class of
marvels considered, the rock-formations of the New West are truly
remarkable. For instance, west of Pueblo, in Colorado, along the
Arkansas River, there are miles and miles of wall from four and five
to fifteen feet high, just as nature laid it, much of it as symmetrical
and finished as skilled labor can produce. It is seen in the distance
often, enclosing the summits of hills like the walls of a penitentiary
or navy yard. Again, it extends for miles along the river, as if it
were the boundary-wall of a grand park, or the guarded grounds of
an agricultural society. Here and there the rocks assume the ap-
pearance of fortifications, cathedrals, battlements, and towers. The
whole appearance is that of solid masonry, such as we expect of
human industry and skill. Let the pen of another confirm our
description.
Mrs. Dr. Blake, speaking from personal observation, says : " Be-
yond Pueblo, the Arkansas widens into a rather sluggish, muddy
stream, pretty in nothing except its windings, and the delicate fresh-
ness of cottonwoods here and there on its banks, which are always
newly lovely to us. It has, besides, for many miles, a fringe of forti-
fications in wonderful perfection ; some in perfect cap-a-pie fighting
order, some ruined and broken, but altogether one of the most pic-
turesque and complete pieces of nature's workmanship we have met
yet. It seems utterly impossible to believe that the walls and battle-
ments, which appear of such solid masonry, should not have been
laid with hands, or that the eye of some human architect did not
direct the soaring grace of those lofty towers, or the solemn strength
of these long lines of ramparts."
The picture on page 129 illustrates the variety of form which the
stones of these walls present.
In one of the thriving cities of Kansas we saw a stone dwelling,
built of granite blocks from twelve to eighteen inches long and half
as thick and wide, more or less, just as they were dug from the earth.
Until otherwise informed we supposed that the stones were hewn
and hammered for the habitation. Yet these blocks of stone were
dug from the surface of the earth, two or three miles away, where,
subsequently, we saw them by the acre. Those of kindred size and
MARVELS OF NATURE.
129
form were selected for the building ; hence they appeared to have
been cut by one pattern. Near by was a handsome face-wall, a
portion of it eight or ten feet high, built in the same way, not one
block in the wall hewn or hammered.
In the same city, also, the flag-stones are quarried seven miles
away, and laid on the sidewalks with no labor expended upon them
except to cut them the required width. We saw one slab sixteen
feet long by five feet and a half wide, smooth enough for the side-
FORMS OF WALLS.
walk without one stroke of a hammer. We have not seen nicer
sidewalks in any city, and yet the stones were laid just as nature
furnished them, after cutting them the necessary width. We sug-
gested to one of the authorities that the next desirable acquisition
for the town was a quarry that would turn out hitching-posts all
ready for setting. The citizens were then engaged in a search for
natural gas, with which to light and heat the city. Their expecta-
tions once realized, and the New West will boast of a city run by
nature — a marvel indeed!
The following cut represents Chicago Lakes, the principal and high-
130 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
est one being eleven thousand five hundred feet above the level of the
sea — the highest body of water on the American continent. The
mountains rise three thousand feet above the lake. It was here that
the celebrated painter Bierstadt found the subject for his great paint-
ing, "A Storm in the Rockies." The highest of this group of lakes is
about one thousand five hundred feet higher than Green Lake, in the-
FISHING ON THE MOUNTAINS.
same vicinity, two miles from Georgetown. The latter has become a fa-
mous resort for pleasure-seekers, where trout-fishing is exceptionally-
good, in waters so deep that, in places, they have never been sounded.
There is peculiar novelty in going a-fishing up towards the sky-
instead of in the other direction. To catch trout in a lake situated
twice as high as the summit of Mount Washington, is a pastime not
afforded to sportsmen in many lands. It is one of the ''patent:
rights" of the New West.
MARVELS OF NATURE.
131
Chicago Lakes are reached by good trails from Fall River, about
three miles above Idaho Springs. The route is romantic with wild
and impressive scenery, rewarding the tourist at every step with
grand and unusual sights.
Another of the curiosities of the New West is the petrified forest.
Mr. Cozzens describes one which he saw in Arizona, on the banks of
the Little Bonita, just after the Apache Indians had made a raid
upon his party, and robbed Dr. Parker of his horse.
PETRIFIED FOREST.
" Here we came upon the remains of a petrified forest, prostrate,
and partially buried in a kind of red mud. Hundreds of trees lay
here, and had been converted by some chemical process into speci-
mens of variegated jasper. One tree that we saw measured ten feet
in diameter, and was over a hundred feet in length. Some looked as
if they had been charred by fire ; their trunks were of a dark brown
color, while the smaller branches and twigs were of a reddish hue.
To me there was something impressively wonderful in the stupendous
result of old Nature's labors in her secret laboratory. Who should
32
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
derive the cause ? Who tell the history of the prostrate forest ? How
long has it there existed, and how many more centuries will it be
there undisturbed ?
*'We brought away some beautiful specimens, although, owing to
the depredations of our Apache friends, we were somewhat short of
means of transportation. We found the waters of the creek de-
SUMMIT OF ITALIAN MOUNTAIN.
lightfully cool and pleasant to the taste ; and, notwithstanding the sug-
gestion of one of the party, that it might have the same effect upon
us that it had evidently had upon the giants of the forest lying around
us, we all drank of it freely, and enjoyed its refreshing coolness.
Dr. Parker feelingly alluded to the loss of his horse, and the miseries
of a pedestrian life through such a rough country, and urged us, in
MARVELS OF NATURE.
m
case we should observe any appearance of petrifaction about him, not
to leave him by the roadside, for the purpose of petrifying the travel-
ler who came after us, but to give him Christian burial ; and that for
a headstone we should use a piece of the rock on which he split,
with this inscription thereon : ' Horseless and homeless a wanderer
passed.' "
The Italian Mountain is in Gunnison County, Colorado, and its
summit, as seen in the cut, is 13,255 feet above the level of the sea.
Tourists can reach
the summit with
comparative ease.
Pike's Peak is less
than a thousand
feet higher than
this mountain, and
scarcely affords a
better view to the
traveller who per-
severes in his ef-
fort to plant his
feet upon its
crown. It is of
singular formation,
as the illustration
shows, and pre-
sents to the stu-
dent of geology a
fruitful subject for
investigation.
The cactus of
the Gila Desert,
Arizona, is a natu-
ral phenomenon.
To those who are
accustomed to see
a cactus in a flow-
er-pot a few inches
high, these Cacti Giganti of the New West must appear mar-
vellous indeed. Some of them are sixty feet high. The illustra-
tion shows the different forms of growth ; though many are a perfect
cone, from twenty to sixty feet high, with a diameter of three feet
ARIZONA CACTI.
134 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
near the ground. Their color is of different shades of green and yeU
low ; and they are covered with sha.rp thorns, some of them three
inches in length. Each cone-cactus bears a single flower on its top
annually, and yields a kind of fruit which the natives highly prize.
Many of the huge cones have several smaller ones growing out of
their trunks, at different heights, and they shoot upwards, parallel to
the trunks that bear them. There is no tree or shrub around them
over three feet high, so that they stand out in bold relief over the
barren waste.
Woodpeckers are plenty as rattlesnakes and lizards in this desert
country, and the former elude the destructive instincts of the latter
by pecking holes in the cactus near its top, where they build their
nests and rear their young in safety.
Captain Button, of the United States Survey, says : —
*' Many species of cactus are seen, the most abundant of which
are the opuntias, or prickly-pears. Of these there are four or five
very common species. A large cactus orchard in blossom is a very
beautiful sight, displaying flowers which, for beauty of form and rich-
ness of color, are seldom surpassed by the choicer gems of the con-
servatory. Nor is it less attractive when in the fruit ; for it yields
a multitude of purple 'pears,' which are very juicy and refreshings
and by no means contemptible in flavor."
II. MARVELS OF RACE.
D^®<<
^^ T TOW strange that the newest part of our country should turn
Xl out to be the oldest," remarked a citizen of Las Vegas, New
Mexico.
" How so ? " we responded, not quite apprehending his meaning.
** Well, our country west of the Missouri River is called the 'New
West,' h6 replied; "but it is much older than New England. Long
before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, this part of our land
was inhabited by an intelligent, enterprising people."
"Very true," we answered; "but they passed away, and left the
Indian and buffalo in full possession. Their rui7is are the only evi-
dence you have of their having lived here."
"And that is evidence enough," he quickly responded. " In some
respects it is the most interesting kind of evidence. A certain mys-
tery invests their history, adding to, instead of subtracting from, its
fascination."
The speaker was right. The history of the ancient races which
dwelt centuries ago in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and other
portions of the New West, has come to the front. Archaeologists,
ethnologists, historians, and' other scholars, in the United States and
Europe, have become deeply interested in these ancient peoples.
Who were they } Whence did they come ? Whither did they go ?
Were they Toltecs } Were they Aztecs ? Were they related to the
Pueblo Indians, still occupying a portion of our Western domain ?
Were they connected with the Mound-Builders of the Mississippi
Valley, or with those of Ohio or Indiana ? Do the remains of human
races scattered over the Old and New West indicate a unity of origin
of the aboriginal inhabitants of North America ^ These questions
indicate the depth of mystery to be sounded before a satisfactory
solution of the problem is reached. That the problem will be solved
there can be no reasonable doubt. In addition to the large number
of scholars investigating the subject on their own account, the
United States Government is pushing exploration as rapidly as pos-
sible. The time is not far distant when the history of these races
136 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
will be a matter of authentic record. Until then we must content
ourselves with the meagre amount of knowledge in our possession ;
which, however, is quite sufficient to awaken the lively interest of the
general reader.
Without questioii, Columbus supposed he had discovered a *' new
world " when he set his foot upon this western shore ; and it was a
" new world " to him ; but it was old to the races which had lived
upon it for centuries before he came. It is new to us, also, because
we never knew, until recently, that such races ever dwelt within its
borders. The disclosure of the fact was a great surprise. At first it
was received with many grains of allowance. The most credulous were
not inclined to accept the announcement without undoubted proof.
But the study and researches of the past decade have dissipated all
lingering doubts. More light has been thrown upon the subject
within fifteen years than during the previous five centuries. The
year 1900 will possess so much light and knowledge relating thereto,
according to present indications, that the history of the ancient races
of the New West will be well understood.
Not many years after Columbus discovered the '' New World,'*
strange rumors reached the authorities of Spain in regard to popu-
lous towns and cities on its western borders. The *' Seven Cities of
Cibola," magnificent and rich, were said to be founded there, inhab-
ited by an intelligent and enterprising people. It was a land of gold,
also. The earth was full of precious metals, which the people mined
at their leisure. These exciting rumors appealed to the Spaniards'
love of gold ; and there is no doubt that they had more or less influ-
ence in organizing the exploring expedition of 1527, by order of the
king, commanded by Pamphilo de Narvaez, to invade the country
which rumor made so populous and rich. This exploring party per-
ished by shipwreck, except Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and three
companions. Ten years Vaca and his companions traversed portions
of the New West, exploring the entire territories of New Mexico,
Arizona, and Utah, and perhaps pushing into Colorado before enter-
ing Mexico. They found large cities "made of earth," inhabited by
a peaceful and interesting race, worshippers of the sun, who brought
their blind and sick to the white men to be healed. They found evi-
dence of immense wealth, inexhaustible mines of gold and silver,
enough to satisfy even the greed of Spanish rulers. The report of
Vaca to his king confirmed the rumors which had already excited the
Spaniards, and they became mad with the hjst of gold and passion
for adventure ; and valiant cavaliers, who had won renown in the bat-
MARVELS OF RACE. IIJ
ties of the Moor among the mountains of Andalusia, and had seen
the silver cross of Ferdinand raised above the red towers of the
Alhambra, now turned their brave swords against the feeble natives
of the New World. Less than half a century had gone by since
the discovery of America ; the conquests of Pizarro and Cortez were
fresh in men's minds, and an expedition, containing the enchanting
quality called hazard, was soon organized. Illustrious noblemen sold
their vineyards and mortgaged their estates to fit the adventurers
out, assured they would never need more gold than they would
bring back from the true El Dorado. The young men saw visions ;
the old men dreamed dreams ; volunteers flocked to the familiar
standards ; and an army was soon ready " to discover and subdue to
the crown of Spain the * Seven Cities of Cibola.' "
And so these people of the New World were conquered, and their
country occupied in the name of the king of Spain.
Here is the first account we have of an ancient race dwelling
under the shadow of the Rocky Mountains ; and even this scarcely
received public attention until recent discoveries revived the old
record. Through the military operations of the United States Govern-
ment, and more especially its geological surveys, the remains of the
ancient "Cave" and "Cliff Dwellers" have been discovered within a
few years, followed by the most remarkable and interesting disclo-
sures. We shall be able to furnish such views of the cave and cliff
dwellings of centuries ago as to leave no doubt in the mind of the
reader, that, even before Columbus sailed on his voyage of discovery,
a peaceful, industrious race, cultivating the soil and practising some
of the arts, dwelt in considerable portions of the New West.
CAVE-DWELLERS.
On the bluffs of Beaver Creek, a sm^ll stream tributary to the
Rio Verde, are about fifty walled caves of different sizes, once the
refuge of a prehistoric race, of whom the present Indian tribes have
no knowledge or traditions, although their traditions run back four or
five centuries. These caves are from five to twenty feet in depth.
The moiaths are closed by mason-work of stone and cement still in a
good state of preservation. The larger caves are divided by wood
and stone partitions and floors into numerous small apartments,
where it would seem this strange people passed years of doubt and
fear, threatened by famine within, and by cruel persecution and tor-
ture from a besieging enemy without. The lower caves were reached
138
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
by climbing the projecting points of the bluffs ; but the higher ones
could be reached only by ladders, and that, too, at the imminent risk
of tumbling down from sixty to one hundred feet.
Near by these caves are the ruins of stone dwellings built without
cement, evidently the homes of the people who constructed the caves
for a refuge from their enemies.
W. H. Holmes, of the United States Survey Corps, examined
these ruins carefully, and he says the cut "gives a fair representation
of the present appearance of these cave-dwellings." He remarks
further : —
" Small fragments of mortar still adhered to the firmer parts of
the wall, from which it is inferred that they were at one time plas-
tered. It is also extremely probable that they were walled up in
front and furnished with doors and windows, yet no fragment of wall
ss®
CAVE-TOWN NEAR THE SAN JUAN.
has been preserved. . . . This circumstance should be considered in
reference to its bearing upon the question of antiquity. If we sup-
pose the recess to be destroyed is six feet deep, the entire cliff must
recede that number of feet in order to accomplish it. If the rock
were all of the friable quality of the middle part, this would indeed
be the matter of a very few decades ; but it should be remembered
that the upper third of the cliff-face is composed of beds of compara-
tively hard rocks, sandstones, and indurated shales. It should also
be noted still further that at the base of the cliff there is an almost total
absence of debris, or fallen rock, or even of an ordinary talus of earth,
so that the period that had elapsed since these houses were deserted,
must equal the time taken to undermine and break down the six feet
of solid rock, plus the time required to reduce the solid rock to dust ;
MARVELS OF RACE.
39
considering, also, that the erosive agents here are unusually weak,
the resulting period would certainly not be inconsiderable."
This illustration furnishes a view of cave-dwellings somewhat dif-
ferent from those just described. They were discovered by A. D.
Wilson, chief of the United States Topographical Corps in Southern
Colorado.
The chief building was about the size of the Patent Office
at Washington.
As described by him to another,^ " it stood upon the
ANCIENT CAVE-DWELLINGS ON THE McELMO.
banks of the Animas, in the San Juan country, and contained per-
haps five hundred rooms. The roof and portions of the walls had
fallen, but the part standing indicated a height of four stories. A
number of the rooms were fairly preserved, had small loop-hole win-
dows, but no outer doors. The building had doubtless been entered
originally by means of ladders resting on niches, and drawn in after
the occupants. The floors were of cedar, each log as large round as
a man's head, the spaces filled neatly by smaller poles and twigs,
covered by a carpet of cedar bark. The ends of the timber were
1 Emma C. Ilardacre.
I40 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
bruised and frayed, as if severed by a dull instrument ; in the vicinity
were stone hatchets, and saws made of sandstone-slivers about two
feet long, worn to a smooth edge. A few hundred yards from the
mammoth building was a second large house in ruins, and between
the two strongholds ruins of small dwellings, built of cobble-stones
laid in adobe,^ and arranged along streets, after the style of the vil-
lage of to-day. The smaller houses were in a more advanced state of
ruin, on account of the round stones being more readily disintegrated
by the elements than the heavy masonry. The streets and houses of
this deserted town are overgrown by juniper and pifion, — the latter
a dwarf, wide-spreading pine which bears beneath the scales of its
cones delicious and nutritious nuts. From the size of the dead as
well as the living trees, and from their position on the heaps of
crumbling stones, it is evident that a great period of time has elapsed
since the buildings fell. How many hundred years they stood after
desertion before yielding to the inroads of time cannot be certainly
known."
Some writers maintain that the presence of cedar wood in these
ruins, in a good state of preservation, is evidence that great antiquity
cannot be attached to them. There is no reason why cedar in South-
ern Colorado, well protected, should not continue sound as long as it
does in Asia or Egypt. In the former country it has been kept a
thousand years, and in the latter two thousand, after being taken from
the forest. The cedars of Colorado, and other parts of the Southwest,
never rot. They die, and stand erect, without sap or rot. "The
winds and whirling sands carve the dead trees into forms of fantas-
tic beauty, drill holes through the trunks, and play at hide-and-seek
in the perforated limbs, until, after ages of resistance, they literally
blow away in atoms of fine, clear dust."
Many of the ancient towns in question were built in the form of a
circle, as well as in that of a square and parallelogram. But what-
ever form was adopted, the measurement was exact. The square
was a perfect square, and the circle a perfect circle. The cut on next
page represents a circular town, with three tiers of dwellings, one
above the other, the second tier receding from the first, and the third
from the second. Evidently it was built both for homes and defence.
It was town and fort combined.
The rooms of some of the houses referred to were plastered, and
the mortar was put on with the hands, — a fact established by the
distinct impression of the fingers, and, in some instances, of the
1 Mud or clay bricks dried in the sun.
MARVELS OF RACE.
141
whole hand. In one instance, the plastering bore the imprint of the
little chubby hands of children, who, no doubt, were delighted with
the impressions they could make in the mortar before it was dry,
proving that they were human.
The foregoing sketches of cave-dwellings are a fair illustration of
all which abound in New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and other
portions of the New West. We need not multiply illustrations, since
the remarkable ruins of some mammoth structures to follow, with the
A CAVE-TOWN RESTORED.
Still more wonderful cliff-dwellings, will acquaint the reader, as far as
can be possible at present, with this mysterious race of human
beings.
Amongst the ruins of the valley of Gila, Arizona, is the '' Casa
Grande," whose marvellous history antedates even the coming of the
Spaniards.
The eminence on which it stands is two and one-half miles from
the Rio Gila River, and both the structure and its surroundings fur-
nish evidence that it must have existed five or six centuries, and
142
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
probably longer. There is little doubt that Coronado referred to this
ruin under the name of the " Chichilticalle, or the Red House."
Nearly two hundred years ago this ruin was visited by Fathers
Mange and Rino, and it was very ancient at that time. Father
Mange described it as including eleven buildings then, '' surmounted
by a protecting wall of moderate height." Now, only the following
ruin is in such a state of preservation as to admit of intelligent exam-
ination, although two others are clearly visible. " It is built of large
adobes measuring four feet by two, and it is fifty feet by forty feet
in size. The walls are five feet thick at the base, and gradually
decrease in breadth toward the top. The inside is divided into five
THE CASAS GRANGES IN 1859.
rooms, the central one being eight feet long and fourteen wide ; the
others are thirty-two feet long by ten wide.
*' Fragments of cedar-wood beams, still inserted in the walls, prove
that the buildings originally consisted of three, perhaps in its central
portion of four, stories. No staircase, nor anything to take its place,
can be made out, so that communication between the stories must
have taken place by means of ladders. A vast conflagration has
everywhere left indelible traces, and this is supposed to have been
the work of the Apaches, the wildest and most indomitable of all the
Indian tribes. The ' Casa Grande ' was the centre of an important
establishment. Bartlett tells us that in every direction, as far as the
eye can reach, we see crumbling walls and masses of rubbish, the
MARVELS OF RACE.
143
remains of old buildings, while Father Mange, Rino, and Font say
that the plain was covered for a radius of ten miles with hillocks of
adobes turned to dust. In fact, volumes would not suffice to describe
all the ruins in these regions, or all the people who have inherited
them." 1
The existence of artificial canals, also, in this vicinity, furnish
undoubted proof that irrigation was understood and practised in that
far-off period. One canal, evidently intended to receive the waters
of the Gila, and distribute them over the cultivated lands, appears to
have been nearly ten miles in length, twenty-five feet wide or more,
and ten feet deep.
It is claimed that
in that portion of Ari-
zona known as Tonto
Basin, embracing more
than ten thousand
square miles, nearly
every eminence fur-
nishes unmistakable
proof of an ancient
race in its ruins. In
some of the valleys, the
foundations and walls
of cities have been dis-
covered, once inhabi-
ted by thousands of
intelligent and busy
people. Although
their history is in-
volved in mystery, there is no question now, that it runs back into
the centuries before Columbus discovered this western world. And,
while the writers and explorers of the past have believed that the
races of to-day radiated over the earth from some point in Asia, the
opinion of Senor Altamirano, of Mexico, the best Aztec scholar ever
known, is, that Asia was peopled from this country, instead of this
country being peopled from Asia. In other words, this is the old
world instead of the new. What disposition he makes of the Garden
of Eden does not appear.
The above ruin is perched on the top of a rock in the McElmo
Valley, with good evidence of an agricultural people dwelling near by.
1 Prehistoric America, by the Marquis de Nadaillac.
A TOWER,
On the summit of a rock in the McElmo Valley
144 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
The structure was erected, no doubt, both for observation and
defence. Holmes says that " every isolated rock and every bit of
mesa within a circle of miles is strewn with remnants of human
dwellings," as represented by the cut.
In New Mexico there are *'Casas Grandes " even more remarka-
ble than that of the Gila Valley. They are in San Miguel Valley,
near the boundary line of the Territory. " Masses of rubbish in the
midst of which rise parts of walls, some of them fifty feet high, indi-
cate the old site of the town. The walls were built of adobes.
These adobes were of very irregular length and twenty-two inches
thick, while the walls themselves were nearly five feet wide and sim-
ply coated with clay moistened with water. The chief building was
eight hundred feet long on the fronts facing north and south, but
only two hundred and fifty on those to the east and west."
" A short distance off, other buildings surround a square court.
Here, too, we find the little cells which are one of the characteristic
features of the ' Casas Grandes,' as of the cliff-houses and the pue-
blos. This is an important indication of similar habits, and of the
similar origin of the builders. There are more than two thousand
mounds in the neighborhood of the * Casas Grandes,' and it is prob-
able that they were burial-grounds. A few miles farther off rises a
regular fortress, not built of adobes, but of well-dressed stones put
together without mortar of any kind. ' The walls are from ten to
twenty feet thick, and the summit is reached by a path cut in the
rock."
Lieutenant Simpson, of the United States corps, in his "Navajoe
Expedition," describes the ruins in the Canon de Chaco, and in the
valley of the Rio de Chelley. There are over thirty of these ruins,
six of which he describes, viz. : Pintado, Meje-gi, Una-Vida, Hungo
Pavie, Chettro-Kettle, and Penasca-Blanca. All but the last strik-
ingly resemble each other, so that the illustration on the following
page substantially represents them all. The Lieutenant says : —
''The pueblo Pintado formed one structure, and was built of tab-
ular pieces of hard, fine-grained, compact, gray sandstone, a material
which is unknown in the present architecture of New Mexico. Age
and the atmosphere have imparted a reddish tint, the layers, or slabs,
being not thicker than three inches, and sometimes as thin as a fourth
of an inch. The masonry discovers a combination of science and
art, which can only be referred to a higher state of civilization and
refinement than is to be found in the works of either the Mexicans or
Pueblos of to-day.
MARVELS OF RACE.
45
RUINS IN THE CANON DE CHACO
" So beautiful, diminutive, and true are the details of the struc-
ture, as to give them at a little distance the appearance of a magnifi-
cent piece of mosaic work.
146 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
** In the outer face of the buildings no signs of mortar are to be
seen, the intervals between the beds, or layers, being chinked with
beautifully colored pebbles of the minutest thinness ; the filling and
backing of the walls is done in rubble masonry, the mortar, however,
showing no indication of the presence of lime ; their thickness at
the base is a little more than three feet, while higher up it is less,
diminishing every story by retreating jogs on the inside from the
bottom to the top.
"■ The elevation of the walls at the present time is thirty-two feet,
showing it to have been originally four stories high ; the ground-plan,
in exterior development, is four hundred and thirteen feet. On the
ground-floor are fifty-four apartments, the smallest one measuring
five feet square, the largest one thirteen feet by seven. These rooms
communicate with each other by means of small doors, two and a
half feet wide by three feet high.
" In the second story the doors are much larger ; in this, as in the
third story, were once windows. The system of flooring was unhewn
beams about six inches in diameter, from which the bark had been
carefully removed ; they were laid transversely from wall to wall,
small, peeled sticks about one inch in diameter being laid across
them ; these were covered with grass or tiillc, which, with a layer of
mud mortar, furnished the floor to the room above. These beams
show no signs of the saw or axe, but bear the marks of having been
hacked off by some very imperfect instrument.
" In different portions of the ruins were three circular apartments
sunk in the ground, the walls being of masonry ; these apartments
measured from three to twenty-seven feet in diameter, and were
about six feet in the clear, were called estufas^ and were used for the
performances of the ceremonies and rites of their religion, the only
entrance to them being through a small door in the top, which also
admitted the light."
CLIFF-DWELLERS.
We now come to the cliff-dwellers, the most remarkable and mys-
terious of all the ancient races. " In an encampment, one thousand
feet above the valley of the Rio Mancos, are single houses, groups of
two and three, and villages, according to the width of the shelf they
occupy. They are so high that the naked eye can distinguish them
merely as specks. There is no possible access to them from above
on account of the rocks that project overhead ; no present way of
reaching them below, although doubling paths and foot-holes in the
MARVELS OF RACE.
H7
RESTORED TOWER AND CLIFF-HOUSES.
148 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
rocks show where the way has been of old trodden by human feet. A
few houses are two stories, — one showed four stories, — but generally
they are not higher than a man's head ; division walls arc built, be-
ginning at the back of the opening and working outward to the front
of the cave, which is so neatly walled by masonry of the prevailing
stones that the artificial work is scarcely noticeable by a casual
observer. Upon the summits of the loftiest battlements are placed
at irregular intervals round stone towers, supposed to have been
signal-towers."
The full-page illustration furnishes a good view of cliff-houses and
round tower as seen in the valley of the Rio Mancos and other locali-
ties. Holmes says : " The cliff -houses conform in shape to the floor
of the niche or shelf on which they are built. They are of firm, neat
masonry, and the manner in which they are attached or cemented
to the cliffs is simply marvellous. Their construction has cost a
great deal of labor, the rock and mortar of which they are built
having been brought for hundreds of feet up the most precipitous
places."
In describing the scene illustrated by the cut. Holmes adds : —
" In one place in particular, a picturesque outstanding promontory
has been full of dwellings, literally honeycombed by this earth-burrow-
ing race ; and as one from below views the ragged, window-pierced
crags, he is unconsciously led to wonder if they are not the ruins of
some ancient castle, behind whose mouldering walls are hidden the
dread secrets of a long-forgotten people ; but a nearer approach
quickly dispels such fancies, for the windows prove to be only the
doorways to shallow and irregular apartments, hardly sufficiently
commodious for a race of pigmies. Neither the outer openings nor
the apertures that communicate between the caves are large enough
to allow a person of large stature to j^ass, and one is led to suspect
that these nests were not the dwellings proper of these people, but
occasional resorts for women and children, and that the somewhat
extensive ruins in the valley below were their ordinary dwelling-
places. On the brink of the promontory above stands the ruin of a
tower, still twelve feet high, and similar in most respects to those
already described. These round towers are very numerous in the
valley of the Mancos. From this point alone at least three others
are in view, some on the higher promontories, others quite low,
within twenty or thirty feet of the river-bed. I visited and measured
seven along the lower fifteen miles of the course of this stream. In
dimensions they range from ten to sixteen feet in diameter, and from
MARVELS OF RACE.
49
five to fifteen feet in height, while the walls are from one to two feet
in thickness. They are in nearly every case connected with other
structures, mostly rectangular in form. At the mouth of the Mancos,
however, a double circle occurs, the smaller one having been the
tower proper. It is fifteen feet in diameter, and from eight to ten
in height. The larger circular wall is forty feet in diameter, and
from two to four feet high, and is built tangent to the smaller."
This cut shows a
cliff-dweller's house in
a rock, a marvellous
piece of enterprise and
ingenuity. As much
at home among the
mountain cliffs as the
eagles, this persistent
people seemed to court
difficulties and dan-
gers. With few and
poor tools to labor
with, their example of
heroic endeavor and
perseverance comes
down to us over the
centuries to inspire
noble effort, as the
house in the rock
proves.
The cut on the fol-
lowing page is an ex-
cellent sketch of what
Jackson discovered,
and named the " Two-
Storied Cliff-House,"
on the banks of the
Rio Mancos. It is sit-
uated seven hundred feet above the level of the river, and is well
preserved. One of the rooms measures nine feet by ten ; another
is six feet square; while the height of the building is twelve feet.
There is a space of two or three feet between the walls ; and the
rocks above form a roof overhanging it. The inside walls of the
rooms were covered with several coatings of clay moistened with
•^i^L
HOUSE IN A ROCK OF MONTEZUMA CANON.
I50
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
water. Here, again, was ample proof that the mortar was laid on
with the hand, for the imprint of fingers was distinct.
Mr. Jackson furnishes the following description of a ruin, quite
different from the one last mentioned, and more accessible. He dis-
covered it on the banks of the Rio San Juan: —
"■ About twelve miles below the Montezuma we discovered, far
away upon the opposite side of the river, a great circular cave, occu-
pying very nearly the entire height of the bluff in which it occurred,
and in which, by close inspection with the glass, we were enabled tO'
make out a long line of masonry. Fording the river, and approach-
ing it, we found that the old bluff-line at this place was a little over
TWO-STORIED CLIFF-HOUSE.
two hundred feet in height, the upper half a light-colored, firm, mas-
sive sandstone, and the lower a dark red and shaly variety. The
opening of the cave is almost circular, two hundred feet in diameter,
divided equally between the two kinds of rocks, reaching, within a
few feet, the top of the bluff above and the level of the valley below.
It runs back in a semi-circular sweep to a depth of one hundred feet ;
the top is a perfect half-dome, and the lower half only less so from
the accumulation of dtbris and the thick brushy foliage ; the cool
dampness of its shadowed interior, where the sun never touches,
favoring a luxuriant growth. A stratum of harder rock across the
central line of the cave has left a bench running around its entire
half-circle, upon which is built the row of buildings which caught our
MARVELS OF RACE. 151
attention half a mile away. The houses occupy the left-hand or
eastern half of the cave, for the reason, probably, that the ledge
was wider on that side ; and the wall back of it receded in such a
manner as to give considerable additional room for the second floor,
or for the upper part of the one-story rooms. It is about fifty feet
from the outer edge of the cave to the first building, a small structure
sixteen feet long, three feet wide at the outer end, and four at the
•opposite end; the walls, standing only four feet on the highest
remaining corner, were nearly all tumbled in. Then came an open
space, eleven feet wide and nine deep, that served probably as a sort of
workshop. Four holes were drilled into the smooth rock floor, about
six feet equidistantly apart, each from six to ten inches deep, and
five in diameter, as perfectly round as though drilled by machinery.
We can reasonably assume that these people were familiar with the
art of weaving, and that it was here they worked at the loom, the
•drilled holes supporting its posts. In this open space are a number
of grooves worn into the rock in various places, caused by the arti-
ficers of the little town in shaping and polishing their stone
implements.
''the main building.
" The main building comes next, occupying the widest portion of
the ledge, which gives an average width of ten feet inside ; it is forty-
eight feet long outside, and twelve high, divided inside into three
rooms, the first two thirteen and a half feet each in length, and the third
sixteen feet, divided into two stories, the lower and upper five feet in
height. The joist-holes did not penetrate through the walls, being
inserted about six inches — half the thickness. The beams rested
upon the sloping back-wall, which receded far enough to make the
upper rooms about square. Window-like apertures afforded commu-
nication between each room all through the second story, excepting
that which opened out to the back of the cave. There was also one
window in each lower room, about twelve inches square, looking out
toward the open country ; and in the upper rooms several small aper-
tures, not more than three inches wide, were pierced through the
wall — hardly more than peep-holes.
"the room divisions.
**The walls of the large building continued back in an unbroken
line one hundred and thirty feet farther, with an average height of
eight feet. The space was divided into eleven apartments, with
152 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
communicating apertures between them. The first room was nine
and a half feet wide, the others dwindling gradually to only four feet
in width at the other extremity. The rooms were of unequal length,
the following being their inside measurements, commencing from the
outer end, viz. : Twelve and a half, nine and a half, eight, seven and
a half, nine, ten, eight, seven, seven, eight, thirty-one feet ; the ledge
then runs along fifty feet farther, gradually narrowing, where another
wall occurs crossing it, after which it soon merges into the smooth
wall of the cave. The first of these rooms had an aperture large enough
to crawl through, leading outward ; the wall around it had been
broken away so that its exact size could not be determined ; all the
others, of which there were about two to each room, were mere peep-
holes, about three inches in diameter, and generally pierced through
the wall at a downward angle. No sign of either roofing or flooring
material could be found in any of the rooms. Everything of that
kind has been thoroughly burned out or removed, so that not a ves-
tige of wood-work remains. We cannot be positively certain that
they had ever been roofed, the mild temperature of this region
hardly necessitating any other covering than such as the ample
dome of the cave itself offered.
** In the central room of the main building we found a circular
basin-like depression, thirty inches across and ten deep, that had
served as a fireplace, being still filled with the ashes and cinders of
aboriginal fires, the surrounding walls being blackened with smoke
and soot. This room was undoubtedly the kitchen of the house.
Some of the smaller rooms appear to have been used for the same
purpose, the fires having been made in the corner against the back-
wall, the smoke escaping overhead.
''ANCIENT MASONRY.
'' The masonry displayed in the construction of the walls is very
creditable ; a symmetrical curve is preserved throughout the whole
line, and every portion perfectly plumb ; the sub-divisions are at right
angles to the front. The stones employed are of the size used in all
similar structures, and are roughly broken to a uniform size. More
attention seems to have been paid to securing a smooth appearance
upon the exterior than the interior surfaces, the clay cement being
spread to a perfectly plane surface, something like a modern stucco
finish. In many places, of course, this had peeled away, leaving the
rough, ragged edges of the stones exposed.
MARVELS OF RACE.
153
*' On the inner walls of some of the sub-divisions that appear to
have been used less than others, the impressions of the hands, and
even the delicate lines on the thumbs
and fingers of the builders, were plain-
ly retained ; in one or two cases a
perfect mould of the whole inner sur-
face of the hand was imprinted in the
plastic cement. They were consider-
ably smaller than our own hands, and
were probably those of women or chil-
dren. In the mortar between the
stones several corn-cobs were found
imbedded, and in other places the
whole ear of corn had been pressed
into the clay, leaving its impression ;
the ears were quite small, none more
than five inches long. In the rub-
bish of the large house some small
stone implements, rough indented
pottery in fragments, and a few ar-
row-points were found. It is a won-
der that anything is found, for it is
more than likely that every house
has been ransacked time after time
by wandering bands of Utes and Na-
vajos, who would search with keen
eyes for any articles of use or orna-
ment left after the first spoliation.
"The whole appearance of the
place and its surroundings indicates
that the family or little community
who inhabited it were in good circum-
stances and the lords of the surround-
ing country. Looking out from one
of their houses, with a great dome
of solid rock overhead, that echoed
and re-echoed every word uttered
with marvellous distinctness, and be-
low them a steep descent of one hun-
dred feet to the broad fertile valley of the Rio San Juan, covered with
waving fields of maize and scattered groves of majestic cottonwoods»
CLIFF-HOUSE ON THE MANGOS.
154
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
these old people, whom even the imaginacion can hardly clothe with
reality, must have felt a sense of security that even the incursions of
their barbarian foes could hardly have disturbed."
The cut (p. 153) represents cliffs or palisades, two hundred feet
high, rising almost perpendicularly. About one-third of the distance
upward, in a recess made by the weather, is a cliff-house, sixty feet
long by about fifteen at its widest part. The walls are a foot thick
and flush with the edge of the precipice. They are erected with
skill, the angles are regular, the lines do not diverge from the per-
pendicular, and, when the difficulties the builder had to contend with
in laying his foundations in such a position and at such a height are
taken into account, these aerial dwellings may well excite our admi-
ration. A people who would undertake a work of so much labor,
with almost insurmountable difficulties before them, must have pos-
sessed some of the most reliable traits of character.
GROUND-PLAN OF LAST-NAMED CLIFF-HOUSES.
Forty or fifty feet above the cliff-house described is another of
equal dimensions, perhaps one hundred and twenty-five feet from the
river. Holmes says of the extraordinary situation of these houses,
*' Whether viewed from below or from the heights above, the effect
is almost startling, and one cannot but feel that no ordinary circum-
stances could have driven a people to such places of resort."
The ground plan of the cliff-houses just described will give the
reader a clearer view of their construction and magnitude. As the
sketch shows, the rooms were separated by division walls, which,
however, did not reach to the rock-roof. The passage from one
room to another was accomplished by ladders reaching to the top of
the partition walls.
The circle in the centre represents the inevitable estufuy which is
found in all the buildings examined. To what this room was devoted
has been a mooted question among explorers ; but the most reason-
MARVELS OF RACE.
155
able view appears to be that it was consecrated to sacred use, and
designed for worship. It is supposed that the people were sun-
worshippers, and that, within this singular apartment, their more
singular rites were performed. This view is confirmed by the fact
that the room is cut off from the others, so that the only way of
entrance is through a tube of solid masonry about twenty-two inches
in diameter, and in this particular case, thirty feet in length.
Through this contracted space a person was obliged to crawl as if
the act were a penance belonging to the rite to be performed within
the esticfa. In other build-
ings the tube leading to the
estufa was ten, fifteen, and
twenty feet in length.
The Montezuma Valley,
which is ten miles wide in
some places, is covered with
ruins. The cliffs overhang-
ing the valley are dotted with
caves and rock-shelters,
which the population turned
to account. Holes were dis-
covered, cut in the solid rock
at regular distances for the
hands and feet in the peri-
lous ascent to these habita-
tions. The forests could not
have furnished timber long
enough for ladders to reach
these lofty abodes. The
houses were not as numerous
here as in the valley of the
Hovenweep, where, ''on a
natural terrace measuring scarcely three hundred feet by fifty, the
cliff-dwellers had managed to erect no less than forty different
houses."
The above is another cliff-house similar to the last one described,
situated on the Rio Mancos River, in Southwestern Colorado. It was
discovered by W. H. Holmes, of the United States Survey, in 1876;
and he says : —
" So cleverly are these houses hidden away in the dark recesses,
and so very like the surrounding cliffs in color, that I had almost
CLIFF-DWELLINGS, MANCOS CANON.
156
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
completed the sketch of the upper house before the lower, or ' sixteen-
windowed ' one was detected. They are at least eight hundred feet
above the river. The lower five hundred feet is of rousjh cliff -broken
CLIFF-HOUSE IN THE CANON DE CHELLY.
slope, the remainder of massive, bedded sanjdstone, full of wind-worn
niches, crevices, and caves. Within one hundred feet of the cliff-top,
set deep in a great niche, with arched, overhanging roof, is the upper
MARVELS OF RACE. 157
iiouse, its front-wall built along the very brink of a sheer precipice.
Thirty feet below, in a similar but less remarkable niche, is the larger
house, with its long line of apertures, which I afterward found to be
openings intended rather for the insertion of beams than for win-
dows."
The drawing (page 156) is a cliff-house two miles from Cave
Town. It is built at a height of seventy feet, and is reached by steps
cut in the rock. " The house is one story high ; the ground-floor
measures eighteen feet by ten, and this narrow space forms two sep-
arate rooms, whilst the first story consists of only one. The over-
hanging rock serves as a protecting roof," If the house were built
for defence chiefly, it was a success. Arrows could not reach it from
below, and no enemy would be so foolhardy as to attempt to reach it
by the steps cut in the rock. Arrows from above would have pierced
his heart by the time he accomplished half the distance.
The difficulties in the way of explorers are well set forth by Air.
Jackson, in the following account of climbing to one of these human
•eyries in Southwestern Colorado. The party were already one thou-
sand feet above the valley, and Mr. Jackson was photographing a
cliff-house, when ''one of the party, sharper-eyed than the rest, de-
scried, away up near the top, perfect little houses, sandwiched in
among the crevices of the horizontal strata of the rock of which the
bluff was composed. While busy with my photographs, two of the
party started up to scale the height, and inspect this lofty abode. By
penetrating a side-canon some little ways, a more gradual slope was
found, that carried them to the summit of the bluff. Now, the
trouble was to get down to the house, and this was accomplished only
by crawling along a ledge of about twenty inches in width, and not
tall enough for more than a creeping position. In momentary peril
of life, — for the least mistake would precipitate him down the whole
of the dizzy height, — our adventurous seeker after knowledge crept
along the ledge until the broader platform was reached, upon which
the most perfect of the houses alluded to stood. The ledge ended
with the house, which was built out flush with its outer edge. This
structure resembled in general features the cliff-houses already spoken
of. The masonry was as firm and solid as when first constructed ;
the inside was finished with exceptional care. In width it was about
five feet in front, the side-wall running back in a semicircular sweep,
in length fifteen, and in height seven feet. The only aperture was
both door and window, and about twenty by thirty inches in diame-
ter. Its uniqueness was its position on the face of the bluff. To
158 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
the casual observer, it would not be noticed once in fifty times in
passing, so similar to the rocks between which it was plastered did it
appear from our position on the trail."
Captain Macomb, who commanded an expedition from Santa Fe
to Grand River, for the United States Government, examined the
ruins of cliff-dwellings in Labyrinth Canon, and he reported as
follows : —
"Two miles below the head of Labyrinth Canon we came upon
the ruins of a large number of houses of stone, evidently built by the
Pueblo Indians, as they are similar to those on the Dolores, and the
pottery scattered about is identical with that before found in so many
places. It is very old, but of excellent quality, made of red clay coated
with white, and handsomely figured. Here the houses are built in
the sides of the cliffs. A mile or two below we saw others crowning
the inaccessible summits — inaccessible except by ladders — of pic-
turesque detached buttes of red sandstone, which rise to the height
of one hundred and fifty feet above the bottom of the canon. Similar
buildings were found lower down ; and broken pottery was picked up
upon the summits of the cliffs overhanging Grand River ; evidence
that these dreadful canons were once the homes of families belonging
to the great people formerly spread over all this region now so utterly
sterile, solitary, and desolate."
Mr. Crofutt says of the full-page illustration : " It represents a pic-
turesque, outstanding promontory hundreds of feet above the valley^
full of dwellings, literally honeycombed by this earth-burrowing race.
And as one from below views the rugged, window-pierced crags, he
is unconsciously led to wonder if they are not the ruins of some
ancient castle, behind whose mouldering walls are hidden the dead
secrets of a long-forgotten people ; but a near approach quickly dis-
pels such fancies, for the windows only prove to be doorways to
shallow and irregular apartments of small dimensions.
''It is hardly probable that these elevated places were the dwell-
ings proper of these people, but occasional resorts for women and
children, as a place of safety in times of war and invasion ; and that
the somewhat extensive ruin^ in the valley below were their ordinary
dwelling-places. On the brink of the promontory above, stands the
ruins of a tower, still twelve feet high.
" In another locality, one of the cliff-houses is fully one thousand
five hundred feet above the bottom of the canon, and between three
hundred and four hundred feet below the top. Every house appears
in perfect preservation, and, when viewed with a field-glass, shows
MARVELS OF RACE.
CLIFF-DWELLINGS, SOUTHERN COLORADO
l6o
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
the whitewash still on the walls, and its size indicates that the town;
once contained a thousand or more people. At the bottom of the
cliff it was strewn with ruins, evidently fallen from above, and only
portions of the houses were standing."
Professor Powell says of these ruins and people : " These cliff-
MARVELS OF RACE. l6l
houses are usually placed on the most inaccessible cliffs ; sometimes
the mouths of caves have been walled across, and tliere are many
evidences to show their anxiety to secure defensible positions. Prob-
ably the nomadic tribes were sweeping down upon them, and they
resorted to these cliffs and caves for safety."
Mr. Crofutt remarks : "The cliffs, on which are to be found many
stone buildings, as shown in the illustration, are of all sizes and
dimensions, varying in height from a few feet to over one thousand
five hundred feet. They are scattered along the sides of the canons,
sometimes only a few feet from the main walls, and in others several
hundred yards away — isolated buttes. We are of thfe opinion they
were all, at one time, a portion of the cafion walls, but by the action
of the eroding elements for thousands of years, have become de-
tached, and are now a puzzling problem for both the historian and
geologist.
''At one point, we are told, twelve miles west from the Ojo Verde,
where several canons unite by the elimination of their dividing walls,
and debouch into a comparatively open country, the view westward is
over a wide extent of country ; in its general aspects a plain, but
everywhere deeply cut with a tangled maze of canons, and thickly
set with towers, castles, and spires of most varied and striking forms
— the most wonderful monuments of erosion that eyes ever beheld.
Near the mesa stand detached portions of it of every possible form,
from broad, flat tables to slender cones, crowned with pinnacles of
the massive sandstone which form the perpendicular faces of the
canon walls. These castellated buttes are from one thousand to one
thousand five hundred feet in height, and no language is adequate
to convey a just idea of the strange and impressive scenery formed
by their grand and varied outlines. In some localities the surface
is diversified by columns, spires, castles, and battlemented towers, of
colossal, but often beautiful proportions, closely resembling elaborate
structures of art, but in effect far surpassing the most imposing
monuments of human skill. In other places are long lines of spires
of white stone, standing on red bases, thousands in number, but so
slender as to recall the most delicate carving in ivory or the fairy
architecture of some Gothic cathedral, many of which were upwards
of five hundred feet in height. On the summit of many of these
wonderful towers are stone buildings, as represented in the accom-
panying illustration."
We have not space to represent the remarkable ruins of ancient
races which Mr. Jackson found in New Mexico. We can only say,
l62
MARVELS OF THE NEV/ WEST.
in addition to what was said on a previous page about mammoth
ruins, that Mr. Jackson found ruins of buildings as large as any at
Washington except the Capitol.
"One of these, the 'Pueblo del Arroya,' has wings one hundred
and thirty-five feet in length, and the western wall of the court is
two hundred and sixty-eight feet. Facing the centre of the court
are three circular estufas, one of thirty-seven feet in diameter and
three stories in height. Another, the ' Pueblo Chettro Kettle,' is
four hundred and forty feet long and two hundred and fifty feet wide,
ann
DDD
DDD
DDD
DDD
UUSft\
DnnQo
Dnnno
□0
DD
□nnnnaizinnnacz
□□□□[=icziciiaac~imcii
ia4 de, ce/idred
GROUND PLAN OF THE PUEBLO BONITO IN THE CHACO CANON.
and presents the remains of four stories. The logs forming the
second floor extend through the walls a distance of six feet, and prob-
ably at one time supported a balcony on the shady side of the house.
In the wall running around three sides of the building nine hundred
and thirty-five feet in length and forty feet in height, there were
more than two million pieces of stone for the outer surface of the
outer wall alone. This surface multiplied by the stones of the oppo-
site surface, and also by the stones of the interior or transverse lines
of masonry, would give a total of thirty million pieces in three hun-
dred and fifteen thousand cubic feet of wall. These millions of
pieces had to be quarried and put in position ; the timbers were
MARVELS OF RACE. 1 63
brought from a great distance, and considering the vastness of the
work and the amount of labor and time that must have been ex-
pended, these buildings may well be compared with the most famous
works of what is so wrongly called the Old World."
The Pueblo Bonito is another of the mammoth buildings dis-
covered. It is five hundred and forty-four feet long, and three hun-
dred and fourteen wide. It has a capacious inside court divided into
nearly equal parts by a row of estiifas. Mr. Jackson has restored this
pueblo to what he supposes to have been its original appearance, and
has furnished the ground plan shown on the preceding page.
The ruins are in such confusion that it is impossible to tell the
exact number of rooms this structure contained. It must have con-
tained more than the Pueblo of Pintado ; and one hundred and fifty
were counted in the latter. It would not be extravagant to say that
the Pueblo Bonito contained two hundred rooms. The drawing gives
a good idea of the form and magnitude of the building.
Lieutenant Simpson, of the United States Survey Corps, has done
a good thing by furnishing the illustration on p. 164, whereby the
reader can understand the form and magnitude of an ancient pueblo,
without the least doubt that here was the abode of an enterprising
people centuries ago.
The Abbe Dominech is of the opinion that these ruins are of
Toltec origin ; and that the buildings were erected in the twelfth
century. He says: ''All these towns are so ancient that no Indian
traditions of the present races make any mention of them. The
banks of the Rio Verde and Salinas abound in ruins of stone dwell-
ings and fortifications which certainly belong to a more civilized
people than the Indians of New Mexico. They are found in the
most fertile valleys, where traces of former cultivation and of im-
mense canals for artificial irrigation are visible. The solidly built
walls of these structures are twenty or thirty yards in length, by
forty or fifty feet in height ; few of the houses are less than three
stories, while all contain small openings for doors and windows, as
well as loop-holes for defence from attacks."
The Abbe continues his observations, and accounts for the extinc-
tion of these ancient races, as follows : —
"These vast monuments of New Mexico and Arizona are known
to but few travellers ; consequently but few writers have speculated
about their origin. Certain it is that all the pueblos of this wilder-
ness are of an incontestable homogeneous character ; they are the
work of a great people, of an intelligent nation, whose civilization
1 64
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
was
far superior to that of the actual tribes. But the question is,
rhat became of this vast population who have left the land covered
with such numerous and wonderful constructions ?
MARVELS OF RACE. 1 65
"It is known that all agglomerations of men and families, on
settling in a new land, build their dwellings in wooded parts, or near
streams, in order to secure these indispensable elements. Many of
this population were suddenly deprived of wood and water.
" Perpetual droughts followed the clearing of the woods, compel-
ling the inhabitants of high plateaus to emigrate into the plains ;
when the rain failed, the wells and cisterns dried up, and the horrors
of thirst drove the people from their abodes. Both rivers and their
sources dried up. . . .
" On the other hand, the soil of these regions is often covered
with agate, jaspar, chalcedony, petrified trees, and masses of arana-
ceous lava, which, descending from the hills, absorb the water of
creeks and their sources, fill up the beds of streams, and render lands
barren and dry which at one time were watered and fertile.
" When these phenomena take place, the people that dwell in the
country are naturally compelled to flee from these newly made des-
erts, which become the abodes of sickness, famine, and death, and go
to seek a more favored land. These compulsory emigrations must
have been frequent, to judge from the traces the population have left
behind ; notwithstanding, the ranks of the emigrants must have been
fearfully thinned by exposure, hardships, and misery. . . .
" The Zunis and other tribes still dwell in pueblos similar to
these we have described ; and it is probable that to their ancestors
the construction of these gigantic edifices ought to be attributed."
The lofty towers of El Moro are called Inscription Rock because
they are covered with strange characters, carved by a people who
were familiar with them centuries ago. Travellers, too, carved their
names thereon nearly a hundred years before the Pilgrims landed at
Plymouth. In " 1526" Don Joseph de Bazemzellos, whoever he may
have been, inscribed his name on this wonderful rock. In "1629"
Juan Gonzales carved his name there. Before he came, in 1606, a
messenger "passed by the place with despatches." And later still,
on '* September 28, 1736," Don Martini de Cochea wrote his name
there. What business brought travellers there three hundred and
fifty years ago, and more, the curious only may conjecture. The
mystery becomes more mysterious in consequence of these facts,
and the rock more of a marvel, especially when we consider that
these travellers found the original inscriptions there, and may have
been carved thereon five hundred or a thousand years before.
Thus, in connection with the cave and cliff dwellings are found
numerous hieroglyphics, or picture-writing, painted or engraved on
66
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
i'i'''l!lliiiiilllllllllillll
rocks, sujDposed to be the work of cliff-dwellers, or some other
prehistoric people. That those especially cut in the rock are very
ancient cannot be doubted. That they were engraved by men of
MARVELS OF RACE.
167
more or less intelligence and ambition is equally manifest. Holmes
says : " The work on some of the larger groups of inscriptions must
have been one of immense labor, and must owe its completion to
strong and enduring motives. With a very few exceptions, the en-
graving bears undoubted evidence of age." As there is no figure of
a horse among them, it is presumed that they antedate the introduc-
tion of that useful animal into the country.
The following is a good illustration of the rock inscriptions that
appear in different parts of the New West : —
ROCK
Mr. Holmes's conclusion about the ruins considered is as follows : —
"As to situation, they may be classified under three heads: (i)
lowland or agricultural settlements ; {2) cave-dwellings ; and (3) cliff-
houses or fortresses.
"Those of the first class are chiefly on the river bottoms, in close
proximity to water, in the very midst of the most fertile lands, and
located without reference to security or means of defence.
1 68 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
" Those of the second are in the vicinity of agricultural lands, but
built in excavations in low bluff faces of the Middle Crustaceous
shales. The sites are chosen, also, I imagine, with reference to secu-
rity ; while the situation of the cliff-houses is chosen totally with
reference to security and defence, — built high upon the steep and
inaccessible cliffs, and having the least possible degree of conven-
ience to field or water.
" As to use, the position for the most part determines that. The
lowland ruins are the remains of agricultural settlements, built and
occupied much as similar villages and dwellings would be occupied
by peaceful and unmolested peoples of to-day. The cave-dwellers,
although they may have been of the same tribe and contemporaneous,
probably built with reference to their peaceable occupations as well
as to defence ; and it is impossible to say whether or not they made
these houses their constant dwelling-places. The cliff-houses could
only have been used as places of refuge and defence. During seasons
of invasion and war, families were probably sent to them for security,
while the warriors defended their property or went forth to battle ;
and one can readily imagine that, when the hour of total defeat came,
they served as a last resort for a desperate and disheartened people."
This view of the cliff-dwellers is confirmed by the fact that " corn-
rooms," "bean-rooms," *' work-rooms," and ''fire-rooms," or kitchens,
were found in many dwellings. The presence of corn and beans,
together with the remains of utensils, denoted the use of the
apartments.
Another factor in the solution of this problem concerning the
ancient races, is the existence of pottery throughout the whole
region where ruins have been discovered and examined. It has been
found in such quantities and variety as to fill explorers with wonder.
Mr. Holmes says : "The study of the fragmentary ware found about
the ruins is very interesting, and its immense quantity is a constant
matter of wonder. On one occasion, while encamped near the foot
of the Mancos Canon, I undertook to collect all fragments of vessels
of manifestly different designs within a certain space ; and, by select-
ing pieces having peculiarly marked rims, I was able to say, with cer-
tainty, that within ten feet square there were fragments of fifty-five
different vessels. In shape these vessels have been so varied that
few forms known to civilized art could not be found. Fragments of
bowls, cups, jugs, pitchers, urns, and vases in indefinite variety may
be obtained in nearly every heap of debris!'' That the makers well
understood the decorative art, is evident from the great variety of
MARVELS OF RACE.
169
beautiful patterns discovered. Mr. Jackson says that one " can see
at a glance the proficiency they had attained in its manufacture and
ornamentation, displaying an appreciation of proportion, and a fer-
VASES FOUND ON THE BANKS OF THE SAN JUAN.
tility of invention in decoration, that makes us almost doubt their
ante-Columbian origin ; but, nevertheless, without going into the
details, we believe them to antedate the Spanish occupancy of this
country, and to owe none of their excellence to European influences,
being, very likely, an indigenous product."
This singular people must have possessed original ideas about
ornamentation and convenience, judging from their domestic utensils.
The cuts on the next page show two of their unique drinking-vessels,
•one representing a man on horseback. The place for drinking ap-
pears to have been in the top of the hat. We can scarcely conceive
of a more awkward drinking-vessel to handle, nor one of more origi-
nal design. It was artistically wrought and beautifully painted.
Whether the tail con-
stituted the handle or
not does not fully ap-
pear. So complicated
an affair must have
been handled most
conveniently by the
legs.
The other vessel is
nearly as curious, and
somewhat more dififi-
FRAGMENTs OF POTTERY. c u 1 1 to Understand.
I/O
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Whether the bottle is filled and emptied through the aperture on the
back or hinder extremity is a question, though we suppose it is the
one on the back. The reader, however, is permitted to differ from us.
The above must suffice as a sample of the pottery found through-
out the ancient ruins. Figures of birds, beasts, reptiles, and animals
are used in decorating, together with the most fantastic forms that
imagination can invent. The figures on some were painted ; on
others, carved or raised.
Implements of husbandry were found among the ruins in many
places ; also stone hand-mills for grinding corn. Arrow-points were
numerous about the cliff-houses ; and their position indicated that
they were hurled against the habitations by an enemy. ** It is re-
markable that, except for the cop-
per rings found at Pecos, not a
weapon or ornament of metal has
been found. Were such articles
carried off by the Indians, or were
the early inhabitants of the peu-
A DRINKING-VESSEL FROM ZUNI
A DRINKING-VESSEL FROM OLD ZUNI.
bios of New Mexico and Colorado ignorant of iron and bronze } This
latter hypothesis seems probable, for the roughly squared beams
supporting their home appear to have been shaped by stone imple-
ments."
The remains of human beings have frequently been found among^
the ruins described. In 1859 the fragment of a human skull was
found associated with the bones of the mastodon, in the auriferous
gravel of Table Mountain, California, one hundred and eighty feet
below the surface of the earth. This discovery has been discussed
in all the learned societies of this country and Europe. In 1866
Professor Whitney, Director of the Geological Survey of California,
discovered a human skull nearly complete, as appears from the photo-
graph of it on the following page, one hundred and thirty feet deep
in the earth.
MARVELS OF RACE.
171
Professor Whitney announced his discovery to Mr. Deser, in the
following words : ** My chief interest now centres in the human
remains, and in the works from the hand of man that have been
found in the Tertiary strata of California, the existence of which I
have been able to verify during the last few months. Evidence has
now accumulated to such an extent that I feel no hesitation in
saying that we have unequivocal proofs of the existence of man on
the Pacific coasts prior to the glacial period, prior to the period of
the mastodon and the elephant, at a time when animal and vegetable
life were entirely different from what they are now, and since which
^^^ --- a vertical erosion of from two
to three thousand feet of hard
rock strata has taken place."
We have simply glanced
at the subject of ancient
races on the Pacific coast.
If we have succeeded in sat-
isfying the reader that the
New West was inhabited by
man prior to the landing of
the Pilgrims, and even prior
to the discovery of this con*
tinent by Columbus, our ob»
ject has been accomplished ;
our first marvel of races has
been established. We have
seen enough, surely, to sat-
isfy us that there is foundation for the legendary tale which Mr.
Jackson's guide in Southwestern Colorado told him, and which Mr.
Ingersol published in the New York Tribune, as follows : —
'' Formerly, the aborigines inhabited all this country we had been
over as far west as the head-waters of the San Juan, as far north as
the Rio Doures, west some distance into Utah, and south and south-
west throughout Arizona and on down into Mexico. They had lived
there from time immemorial, — since the earth was a small island,
which augmented as its inhabitants multiplied. They cultivated the
valley, fashioned whatever utensils and tools they needed very neatly
and handsomely out of clay and wood and stone, not knowing any of
the useful metals ; built their homes and kept their flocks and herds
in the fertile river-bottoms, and worshipped the sun. They were an
eminently peaceful and prosperous people, living by agriculture rather
PHOTOGRAPH OF A HUMAN SKULL
Found one hundred and thirty feet deep in the earth.
172 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
than by the chase. About a thousand years ago, however, they were
visited by savage strangers from the north, whom they treated hos-
pitably. Soon these visits became more frequent and annoying.
Then their troublesome neighbors — ancestors of the present Utes —
began to forage upon them, and, at last, to massacre them and devas-
tate their farms ; so, to save their lives at least, they built houses
high upon the cliffs, where they could store food and hide away till
the raiders left. But one summer the raiders did not go back to the
mountains as the people expected, but brought their families with
them and settled down. So, driven from their homes and lands,
starving in their little niches on the high cliffs, they could only steal
away during the night, and wander across the cheerless uplands. To
one who has travelled these steppes, such a flight seems terrible, and
the mind hesitates to picture the suffering of the sad fugitives.
" At the cristone they halted, and probably found friends, for the
rocks and caves are full of the nests of these human wrens and
swallows. Here they collected, erected stone fortifications and
watch-towers, dug reservoirs in the rocks to hold a supply of water,
which in all cases is precarious in this latitude, and once more stood
at bay. Their foes came, and for one long month fought and were
beaten back, and returned day after day to the attack as merciless
and inevitable as the tide. Meanwhile, the families of the defenders
were evacuating and moving south, and bravely did their protectors
shield them till they were all safely a hundred miles away. The
besiegers were beaten back and went away. But the narrative tells
us that the hollows of the rocks were filled to the brim with the
mingled blood of conquerors and conquered, and red veins of it ran
down into the canon. It was such a victory as they could not afford
to gain again, and they were glad when the long fight was over to
follow their wives and little ones to the south. There, in the deserts
of Arizona, on well-nigh unapproachable, isolated bluffs, they built new
towns, and their few descendants, the Moquis, live in them to this
day, preserving more carefully and purely the history and veneration
of their forefathers than their skill or wisdom. It was from one of
their old men that this traditional sketch was obtained."
PUEBLOS.
The Pueblo, Zuni, and Moquis Indians are descendants of the
cliff-dwellers. Their dwellings, occupations, dress, customs, habits,
and worship all bear witness to this fact. Hence, some under-
MARVELS OF RACE, 173
Standing of these tribes is necessary to confirm previous statements
concerning ancient races. One writer states the genealogy as fol-
lows, speaking of Arizona : —
" Arizona has a history that has never been written. It is only
told by the inscribed rocks, the empty irrigating canals, the ruins of
populous towns, vacant cliff-dwellings, deserted pueblos, and broken
pottery found in so many parts of the Territory. Before the European
saw this continent two races had lived and died in Arizona. Near
Cosnino, on the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, there is a canon two
thousand feet deep, which is one hundred yards wide at the bottom
and three hundred at the top. Along the walls ledges project out-
ward from ten to twenty feet. Between these, seven tiers of cliff-
dwellings can be traced. It is two hundred feet from the bottom of
the canon to the lower tier. The front and side walls are of solid
masonry and are yet well preserved. How many thousands of years
have elapsed since the cliffs were occupied no man can know.
Between that age and the white man came the race who built the
canals and farmed the valleys. Perhaps the most extensive of their
ruins are at Casa Grande, in the Gila Valley, six miles below Florence
and five miles south of the river. When first found by the white
man, some three hundred and fifty years ago, the largest building
was four stories high and had walls six feet thick. A hundred years
ago one house still remained which was four hundred and twenty by
two hundred and sixty feet. The walls are of a concrete made of
mud and gravel, held together by a hard cement. The inner surface
was coated by this cement and is hard and smooth to-day. The ruin
is now but fifty by thirty feet and will soon be a mere mound. In
the vicinity there is an irrigating canal which has been followed to
the Gila, forty miles distant. This proves that an immense body of
land was cultivated by this people. In all parts of the Territory are
ruins of a similar character, though many are of stone. It is impos-
sible to say positively just who those people were and where they
went.
''The cliff-dwellers disappeared, and then came the men who dug
the irrigating canals. It is highly probable that this semi-civilized
people were driven out by the marauding Apaches whom the Span-
iards found in Arizona. We only know that the three races had
made this their home ere the Spaniards came."
'' Pueblo " is the Spanish name for town or village. There are
twenty-six of these Indian pueblos in New Mexico and Arizona, nine-
teen of them in the former Territory and seven in the latter. Nine
174
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
of them are on the Hne of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway, or
near by it, viz. : Taos, Picario, San Juan, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso,
Pojungue, Irambe, Cuyamanque, and Tesugue. Cortez found them
MARVELS OF RACE.
175
here three hundred and fifty years ago, much more civilized than the
nomadic tribes around them, as they are to-day. They cultivate the
If"
iii^iiiiiiiiiiiilifcilM
soil and live in fortified towns or villages, as represented by the ill us
tration. Their dwellings are made of adobes. The cut gives an
1/6 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
excellent view of the Laguna pueblo, in which the presence of ladders
indicates to the reader that the dwellings are entered at the top.
Adobes make impregnable walls. In the Mexican War, General
Scott said '' that the ordinary adobe house was a pretty good fortress.
Entering them at the top, and then hauling up the ladders, furnished
inhabitants with the best security against their enemies."
Generally a square, or plaza, is found in the centre of the pueblos,
the habitation being built around it. All pueblos are very much
alike. The walls of the buildings are from two to four feet thick,
and the roofs are constructed of timbers covered with dirt a foot or
more thick. One who has examined them closely says : *' Many
houses are two, and some even four and five stories, or rather ter-
races, in height, each successive story being set back some twelve
or fifteen feet from the side-walls of the next story below. The
usual manner of entering these dwellings is by ascending a ladder
outside the building to the roof, and through a hole descending to
the interior by another ladder ; though some, as a very modern
improvement, have doors cut through the side-walls. This method
was doubtless adopted as a defensive measure during troublesome
times, when it was often necessary to convert the pueblo into a for-
tress from which to repel hostile invasions."
The Pueblo of Taos furnishes an illustration of what the writer
just quoted means by ** terraces." We believe that ** terraces" is the
word rather than "stories." Some explorers describe them as houses
built in tiers one story high, but on three, four, and five terraces, one
above another ; and they call the whole cluster together, "community
house."
The Pueblo of Taos is considered one of the most interesting of
the whole twenty-six. It consists of two communistic houses, each
one five stories high ; or, rather, built on five terraces, one above
the other. There are seven circular mounds built around the pueblo,
supposed to be sweating-chambers, or some sort of Turkish bath,
which this singular people used. One of them was used for a coun-
cil chamber, without doubt ; and there, too, their religious rites were
performed.
Apart from the town, and yet in close proximity to it, are the ruins
of a Catholic cathedral, presenting to the tourist a very interesting
subject for examination and study. It must have been a struc-
ture of considerable magnificence, especially for that time and
that people. The ruins indicate a building of large proportions and
very substantial. Architecture must have been one of the arts with
MARVELS OF RACE.
77
which the inhabitants were familiar. Pottery was another ; proofs
of which He scattered among the ruins everywhere.
On top of many of the houses is the adobe oven ; though it often
stands by itself apart from the house. The illustration represents
the latter.
Professor Zahm has personally inspected several pueblos, and
therefore speaks authoritatively of the houses of this curious people,
as well as of the form and durability of their dwellings. He says :: —
" One of the first things to attract the attention of the visitor on
entering their houses, is the large number of glass mirrors that adorn
the walls. I remember counting no fewer than seven — and good-
sized ones they were — in one room. An object of special interest,
too, in every pueblo, is the estufa, or council chamber. The one in
Isleta is a circular struc-
ture of adobe without
windows, forty feet in di-
ameter, and fifteen feet in
height, with only one en-
trance, and that through
the roof. The church is
quite a large building, and
in a good state of preser-
vation. Like all the other
buildings in the town, it
is made of adobe, and has
walls six feet thick.
'' The pueblos of San
Juan, Taos, San Domingo, Zuni, Acoma, and others, throughout
New Mexico and Arizona, are, in appearance, essentially the same
as that of Isleta. In Isleta, however, the houses are scarcely ever
more than one story high, and are entered by doors in the side,
whilst the houses of other pueblos are frequently several stories
in height, to which entrance is obtained by ascending ladders, and
passing down through a hole in the roof. Men, women, and chil-
dren, cats and dogs, may be seen rapidly running up and down these
ladders when going into and coming out of these curious dwell-
ings.
" It is said that these houses were constructed in this fashion to
serve the purpose of fortresses, in case of an attack from an enemy.
When attacked, the inhabitants raise all the ladders, thereby cutting
off all possibility of entrance to their habitations ; and, as they are
ADOBE OVEN.
1/8
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
generally well provisioned, they are prepared to withstand a long siege.
But you may say that such structures may do well enough against
a shower of Indian arrows, but that they would never withstand bul-
lets and cannon-balls. The experience, however, in the Mexican war
of 1846, will tell you differently. If what we know of resisting power
of ordinary earthworks were not sufficient to convince us of the
strength of the thick adobe walls of Pueblo dwellings, the actual tests
made, time and again, of their strength should remove all doubt
about the matter. It has been found, as a matter of fact, that a wall
THE OLDEST HOUSE IN THE UNITED STATES.
of adobes will withstand the batterings of shot and shell almost, if
not fully, as well as the rampart of cotton-bales that stood General
Jackson in such good stead in the battle of New Orleans.
''In this connection I would also make an observation regarding
the durability of these structures of adobe, the material of which, until
lately, nearly all the buildings of the Southwest were constructed. It
might be thought, at first sight, that they could not withstand the
rxtion of the elements for more than a few weeks, or months at most,
and that the first rain-storm would wash them away. Such, however,
is far from being the case. The oldest house in the United States is
built of adobe ; and although it has been standing at least since 1540,
it is still inhabited, and bids fair to last a century more, and probably
longer."
MARVELS OF RACE.
179
Professor Zahm says the oldest house in the United States is buiit
of adobe. We are able to furnish a view of it engraved from one of
Jackson's photographs. It is several hundred years old — an old
dwelling when the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock.
This was one of the first habitations erected in Santa Fe, no
doubt. Originally it was destitute of door or window in the side and
end — these have been cut within a century. Santa Fe was a town
of importance in 1550, when it was settled by the Spaniards. Based
on this fact was the " Tertio-Millennial Anniversary" there, in 1883,
when the place was visited by representatives from every State and
Territory, and from other nations as well. The appearance of the
building indicates that it was standing when the Spaniards took
possession of the place.
W^
"THE ADOBE PALACE."
Old Government House at Santa Fe', erected 1600.
Having seen the oldest adobe house, it may be well to exhibit the
best one. So far as we know, "The Adobe Palace" of Santa Fe is
the best; and it was erected in 1600, so that its age is a matter of
considerable interest. It was built for the first governor when Santa
Fe, which is the oldest town in the United States, was the capital
and centre of the Pueblo Kingdom. It was named Palacio del
Gobernador ; and it was occupied by the first governor — Pedro de
Peralto — in 1600. " The building itself has a history as full of pathos
l8o MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
and stirring incident as the ancient fort of St. Augustine, and is
older than that venerable pile. It had been the palace of the
Pueblos immemorially before the holy name Santa Fe was given in
baptism of blood by the Spanish conquerors ; palace of the Mexicans
after they broke away from the crown ; and palace ever since its
occupation by El Gringo. In the stormy scenes of the seventeenth
century it withstood several sieges ; was repeatedly lost and won, as
the white man or the red held the victory." ^
When the United States Government took possession of the
town, in the late war of the Rebellion, General Lew Wallace oc-
cupied this palace ; and there Mrs. Wallace wrote her valuable arti-
cles concerning the Pueblos. The latter were loyal to our govern-
ment.
We have said that in nearly all the pueblos, the adobe buildings
were erected around a plaza, or park. It was so in Santa Fe. The
beautiful plaza, with adobe houses in good condition built around it,
appears as when Coronado passed through the pueblo almost three
hundred and fifty years ago. During all this time little change has
been wrought in Santa Fe, except what our Christian civilization has
made within a few years. The ancient part of the town is substan-
tially the same. It is a very interesting scene, — the ancient and
modern civilizations side by side, as it is, not only in Santa Fe, but
as we saw it in other parts of New Mexico. A terse writer says : —
" Here are three civilizations side by side. The Pueblo Indians,,
the descendants of the powerful Aztecs, present the aboriginal civil-
ization, just as Cabeza de Vaca found it three hundred and fifty years
ago. Their houses, manners, and customs are the same now as then,
and theirs is the oldest type of American civilization of which we
have any knowledge. Then, there is the Spanish population. Prac-
tically cut off from the rest of the world for hundreds of years, they
present in a crystallized form the life of the seventeenth century in
the latter part of the nineteenth. These people present to-day the
generosity, hospitality, and high-spirited chivalric feeling of the old
days of Castile. The quiet, easy life of the Pueblo and the Spaniard
ran smoothly side by side with no perceptible change, secure in the
isolation of distance, till suddenly the new civilization of the nine-
teenth century, borne along by the swift and irresistible flight of
steam and electricity, ' invaded and overran that hitherto silent and
voiceless empire.' A recent traveller through that country expresses
it thus : * The old order, surprised suddenly, has not had time to fly
1 Mrs. Susan E. Wallace.
MARVELS OF RACE.
i8i
or to change, and stands mute in the presence of the new. There
stands the sun-browned herdsman, watching his flocks in the valley ;
here the Mexican woman, with her shawl over her head, looks shyly
from the door of her adobe hut, just as she has looked for all time,
while the locomotive dashes by them, and the telephone wire is
strung over their heads to communicate with ranches forty miles in
the interior. There has never been anything like it in the world
before.' "
THE OLDEST CHURCH IN AMERICA.
Since we are upon this subject, a view of the oldest church in
America will be apropos. It is located at Santa Fe, and, like the
oldest house, is built of adobes. It has stood for three centuries,
and, though the elements and time have demohshed a portion of its
tower, the interior is well preserved. There is an oil painting of the
Annunciation on one of the interior walls bearing the date **a.d.
1287." It is thought to be one of the oldest paintings in the world.
The cut gives a correct representation of the structure.
l82 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Modern civilization has created a great contrast by erecting
churches with spires ; a hotel that cost one hundred thousand dollars ;
a hospital costing ninety thousand dollars ; the Santa Fe Academy,
together with the railroad, telegraph, and telephone — enough to
startle the ancient race living there by appealing to their supersti-
tious notions.
The Pueblo Tezuque is but eight miles from Santa Fe, and Mrs.
Wallace, from whom we have quoted, made herself familiar with the
manners, habits, history, and habitations of its people. She found
everything just as described by Coronado's secretary in 1541. The
women wore the same style of dresses their ancestors wore three
hundred years ago. The fashion had not changed even once. Mrs.
Wallace gives such a vivid description of one of the girls as to throw
much light upon the character of the race. We quote her description.
** There passes my window at this moment a young Indian girl
from Tezuque, a village eight miles north of Santa Fe. Like the
beloved one of the Canticles, she is dark but comely, and without
saddle or bridle sits astride her little btirro in cool defiance of city
prejudice. Always gayly dressed, with ready nod and a quick smile,
showing the whitest teeth, we call her the Bright Alfarata, in memory
of the sweet singer of the blue Juniata ; though the interpreter says
her true name is Poy-ye, the Rising Moon. Neither of us under-
stands a word of the other's language, so I beckoned to her. . She
springs to the ground with the supple grace of an antelope, and
comes to me, holding out a thin, slender hand, the tint of Florentine
bronze, seats herself on the window-sill, and, in the shade of the
portal we converse in what young lovers are pleased to call eloquent
silence. Her donkey will not stray, but lingers patiently about, like
the lamb he resembles in face and temper, and nibbles the scant
grass which fringes the acequia. I think his mistress must be a lady
of high degree, perhaps the caciqiies daughter, she wears such a
holiday air, unusual with Indian women, and is so richly adorned
with beads of strung periwinkles. She wears loose moccasins, 'shoes
of silence,' which cannot hide the delicate and shapely outline of her
feet, leggins of deer-skin, a skirt reaching below the knee, and a
cotton chemise. Her head has no covering but glossy jet-black hair,
newly washed with amole, banged in front, and 'is tricked off behind
the ears in the shape of a wheel which resembles the handle of a
cup,' — the distinguishing fashion of maidenhood now as it was more
than three hundred years ago. Tied by a scarlet cord across her
forehead is a pendant of opaline shell, the Hning of a muscle shell,
MARVELS OF RACE.
183
doubtless the very ornament called precious pearl, and opal which
dazzled the eyes and stirred the covetous hearts of the first conqins-
tadorcs. Our Pueblo belle wraps about her drapery such as Caste-
nada's maiden never dreamed of, — a flowing mantle which has
followed the march of progress. Thrown across the left shoulder
and drawn under her bare and beautiful right arm is a handsome red
blanket, with the letters U. S. woven in the centre."
, -ii Tit^Mlr
^^iM^
PUEBLO AND CART
The above represents another pueblo, furnished more particularly
here to show the sort of cart which the Indians use. The wheels
are sawed from logs, as has been the custom from time immemorial,
affording a very bungling vehicle in comparison with the modern cart
of civilization. Carts were not used at all until within sixty years.
The burro played the part of both horse and cart. "Packing" the
animal with his load was done by experts. Not only wood, but.
almost every sort of merchandise, was carried in this primitive way.
All kinds of utensils whicn this people use were equally primitive.
The plough was little better than a crooked stick, similar to the plough
of Palestine. Planting and reaping were accomplished with imple-
ments equally ancient. And it is substantially so now. We saw
these things again and again in New Mexico four years ago.
1 84
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
The burro has proved himself to be a very useful animal, not only
to Indian people described, but to pioneers generally in the far West.
What the elephant is to the desert plains of the East, that has been
PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE
the burro to the Rocky Mountain region of the West. Strong, obedi-
ent, and reliable, he submits to his master in doing very hard work,
climbing where horses can never go. He is small, about the size of
a very large Newfoundland dog, perhaps a little larger on the aver-
age ; but he has more strength and endurance than his size indicates.
On the whole he is a funny little fellow.
Among the Indian race in question we find nothing like the
wheelbarrow, so useful to the laboring class of modern times. The
cut on the following page is the nearest approach to it.
We have now devoted as much
space as we have to spare to the
Pueblo, and must pass to the Zuni
and Moquis, whose claim of direct
connection with the cliff-dwellers
is even more satisfactory than that
of the Pueblos. We will add, how-
ever, on the following page, a sketch
of another pueblo, — that of Acoma,
— on account of its peculiarities.
The pueblo of Acoma is built
upon a cliff three hundred and fifty
feet high, and can be reached only
by clambering up the debris of fal-
len rocks, and then following the steps cut in the solid rock up to
immense timbers that have been placed near the top. Should these
BURRO LOADED WITH WOOD.
MARVELS OF RACE.
i8s
AN ANCIENT WHEELBARROW.
timbers be precipitated to the base of the chff, it would be impossible
for man to reach the dwellings,
Mr. Cozzens says : '' About two o'clock in the afternoon we came
in sight of Acoma. It stands upon the top of a rock, at least three-
hundred and fifty feet above the
- — ^ \ \ I It surrounding plain, and seems
from its situation to be almost
impregnable. The pueblo can
be reached only by means of a
staircase, containing three
HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIVE
STEPS, cut in the solid rock.
At the upper end of this is a lad-
der eighteen feet long, made
from the trunk of a tree, in
which notches have been cut for the feet.
''The town is composed chiefly of blocks, containing sixty or
seventy houses each, generally three stories in height. . . . The peo-
ple seem to be industrious, frugal, and happy. We found them kind
and hospitable, and anxious
to do whatever might con-
tribute to our comfort.
Many of the women would
not have been uncomely in
appearance were it not for
the fact that they padded
their legs to an enormous
size, thus rendering them
anything but attractive.
*' The governor is chosen
from the old men by uni-
versal suffrage, the only
•qualification necessary be-
ing wisdom. He holds his
office during life, and pre-
sides over the council,
which is composed entirely
of old men. The decision of this official is regarded as law in all
matters.. Next in rank is a war-captain, who arranges all companies
and takes charge of every expedition. He also exercises supreme
control over all the horses belonging to the pueblo. Then comes the
i86
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
treasurer, or fiscal chief, who has charge of the council house, church,
etc., and who superintends all outlays for repairs, and exercises a
supervisory power over all expenditures of whatever nature. The
,^overnment of Acoma is in many respects similar to that of all the
pueblos, and is universally regarded by those most deeply interested
in its success, as a very beneficent one." ^
According to Coronado, Pecos, as represented below, was in ruins
in 1540. Later the pueblo was rebuilt, and a church and convent
provided ; and, two hundred years ago, the population exceeded two
thousand. The town was built on an eminence, and was strongly
fortified. Judging from its surroundings, the location was selected
because it overlooked the country for many miles, and the approach
of enemies could be discovered in season to put the inhabitants upon
the defensive.
Cozzens says : *' The Indian legend is, that Montezuma built this
pueblo himself, and with his own hands placed the sacred fire in the
estufa, at the same time warning his people that when they allowed
it to go out, death would come. Before he left them he took a tall tree,
and, inverting it, planted it near the eshifa, saying, if they did not
permit the sacred flame to be extinguished until the tree fell, men
with pale faces would come into the country from the east, and, over-
running it, would drive their oppressors, the Spaniards, from the
country, when he himself would return and build up his kingdom, the
1 Three Years in Arizona and New Mexi
;xico.
MARVELS OF RACE. 187
earth should become fertile, and the mountains yield rich harvests of
gold and silver. All of which predictions, these Indians claim, have
been literally fulfilled."
ZUNIS.
We are fortunate in having the knowledge of this strange people
which Frank H. Gushing has given to the public. Mr. Gushing was
sent by the United States government, in 1879, to learn what he
could of this tribe, which numbers two thousand. It was expected
that he would accomplish his mission and return in about three
months. But he has dwelt among this people nearly all the time
since. Indeed, he found that it was quite impossible to learn what
he desired without becoming a Zuni himself. So he adopted their
dress, mode of living, and methods of worship, in order to be admit-
ted to their most secret conclaves.
At first his presence was clearly annoying to them, especially to
their rulers. He used his note-book and sketch-book freely, which
seemed to play upon their superstitious notions. Evidently they
wanted to destroy these. Mr. Gushing says : —
" When I took my station on a house-top, sketch-books and colors
in hand, I was surprised to see frowns and hear explosive, angry ex-
postulations in every direction. As the day wore on this indignation
increased, until at last an old, bushy-headed hag approached me, and
scowling into my face made a grab at my book and pantomimically
tore it to pieces. I was chagrined, but paid no attention to her,
forced a good-natured smile, and continued my sketching. Discour-
aged, yet far from satisfied, the natives made no further demonstra-
tions."
He made slow progress in getting into their good graces. The
note-book and sketch-book proved an obstacle to a very intimate
acquaintance. Mr. Gushing continues : —
" I was determined not to give them up, but was desirous, so far
as possible, of conciliating the Indians. I therefore began with the
children. They would scamper up ladders and stand on the roof-
tops as I passed, but for all that had a lively curiosity concerning
me, and would shout to one another, ' Is-ta-shi, Me-lik-i-a ! ' — which
I rightly divined was, 'Just look, the little American is coming!'
I began carrying sugar and pretty trinkets in my pockets, and when-
ever I could tempt some of them near with a lump of the rare deli-
cacy, would pat them on the head and give them the pretty trinkets.
1 88 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
or even take the less shy and dirty of them in my arms. I grew in
their favor, and within a few days had a crowd of them always at my
heels. The parents were delighted, and began to share the affection
of their children. Nevertheless, the next time I sketched a dance^
all this went for nothing.
"Much discouraged, at last I determined to try living with the
Indians. Accordingly, I moved books, papers, and blankets to the
governor's house. On the dirt floor in one corner, I spread the
blankets, and to the rafters slung a hammock. When the old chief
came in that evening and saw that I had made myself at home, he
shrugged his shoulders.
*' * How long will it be before you go back to Washington 1 ' he
attempted to ask.
"'Two months,' I signified.
" ' Tiih ! ' (damn) was his only exclamation, as he climbed to the
roof and disappeared through the sky-hole."
Zuni town is situated in the desert part of New Mexico, on an
eminence from which a good view of the surrounding plain is had.
It is reached by going southwest from Fort Mingate across a spur of
the Zuni Mountain, thence along the Rio Zuni to Ojode Pescado.
From the latter place it is a weary journey over scorching sands tc
Zuni. The area of the town is about half a square mile, and streets
are well laid out, running at right angles. The houses are built of
adobe, one, two, three, and even six stories or terraces. Within a.
few years ground-doors have been cut in a few of the houses ; but
the usual mode of entrance is by ladder to the second story, thence
inside by steps up and down. Some of the dwellings have isinglass,
windows, and a few have doors hung on hinges. On each floor there
are several apartments.
Mr. Gushing describes his entrance into this queer town as
follows : —
" I chanced to meet, over toward the river, an Indian. He was
bareheaded, his hair banged even with his eyebrows in front, and
done up in a neat knot behind, with long locks hanging down either
side. He wore a red shirt and white cotton pantalets, slitted at the
sides from the knees down so as to expose his bare legs, and raw-
hide-soled moccasins. Strings of shell-beads around his neck, and a
leather belt around his waist, into which were stuck a boomerang
or two, completed his costume. Knitting-work in hand, he left his
band of dirty white and black sheep and snuffling goats in charge
of a wise-looking, grizzled-faced, bob-tailed mongrel cur, and came.
MARVELS OF RACE.
189
with a sort of shiililin- dug-trot toward the road, caUing out, ' Hai !
hai ! ' and extending his hand with a most good-natured smile.
'* I shook the proffered hand warmly, and said, ' Zuiii ? '
I go MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
" ' E ! ' exclaimed the Indian, as he reverentially breathed on my
hand and from his own, and then, with a nod of his head and a fling
of his chin toward the still distant, smoky terraces, made his excla-
mation more intelligible.
" I hastened on with all the speed I could scourge out of my obsti-
nate, kicking mule, down the road to where the rivulet crossed it, and
up again, nearer and nearer to the strange structures.
" Imagine numberless, long, box-shaped, adobe ranches, connected
with one another in extended rows and squares, with others less and
less numerous, piled up on them lengthwise and crosswise, in two,
three, even six stories, each receding from the one below it like the
steps of a broken stair-flight, — as it were, a gigantic pyramidal mud
honey-comb with far outstretching base, — and you can gain a fair
conception of the architecture of Zuni.
" Everywhere this structure bristled with ladder-poles, chimneys,
and rafters. The ladders were heavy and long, with carved slab
cross-pieces at the tops, and leaned at all angles against the roofs.
The chimneys looked more like huge bamboo-joints than anything
else I can compare them with, for they were made of bottomless
earthen pots, set one upon the other and cemented together with
mud, so that they stood up, like many-lobed, oriental spires, from
every roof-top. Wonderfully like the holes in an ant-hill seemed the
little windows and doorways which everywhere pierced the walls of
this gigantic habitation ; and like ant-hills themselves seemed the
curious little round-topped ovens, which stood here and there along
these walls or on the terrace edges.
" All round the town could be seen irregular, large and small
adobe or dried-mud fences, inclosing gardens in which melon, pump-
kin, and squash vines, pepper-plants, and onions were most conspic-
uous. Forming an almost impregnable belt nearer the village were
numerous stock corrals of bare cedar posts and sticks. In some of
these, burros, or little gray, white-nosed, black-shouldered donkeys
were kept ; while many others, with front legs tied closely together,
were nosing about over the refuse heaps. Bob-tailed curs of all
sizes, a few swift-footed, worried-looking black hogs, some scrawny
chickens, and many eagles, — the latter confined in wattled stick
cages, diminutive corrals, in the corners and on the house-tops —
made up the visible life about the place.
" Not an Indian was anywhere to be seen, save on the topmost
terraces of this strange city. There hundreds of them were congre-
gated, gazing so intently down into one of the plazas beyond, that
MARVELS OF RACE. I9I
none of them observed my approach, until I had hastily dismounted,
tied my mule to a corral post, climbed the refuse-strewn hill and two
or three ladders leading up to the house-tops. The regular tJmd^
thud of rattles and drums, the cadence of rude music which sounded
more like the soughing of a storm-wind amid the forests of a moun-
tain than the accompaniments of a dance, urged me forward, until I
was suddenly confronted by forty or fifty of the men, who came
rushing towards me with excited discussioi:! and gesticulation. One
of them approached and spoke something in Spanish, motioning me
away ; but I did not understand him, so I grasped his hand and
breathed on it as I had seen the herder do. Lucky thought ! The
old man was pleased, smiled, breathed in turn on my hand, and then
hastily addressed the others, who, after watching me with approving
curiosity, gathered around to shake hands and exchange breaths,
until I might have regarded myself the president, had not an uproar
in the • court attracted them all away ; all, save one, a young, cadav-
erous-looking fellow with strange, monkey-like little eyes, who lin-
gered behind and ventured : —
'' ' How-li-loo } '
'' ' Pretty well,' I replied. ' How are you } '
*''At's good,' said he; and this useful phrase he employed in
every answer to my crowded queries, until I reluctantly concluded
that it was the extent of his English."
The people were engaged in a ''sacred dance" when Mr. Gushing
and his party arrived. They lost no time in pitching their tent and
going into camp. They had scarcely got settled when two or three
Indians came into the tent and squatted on their haunches near the
entrance. Mr. Gushing gave them cigarettes, which they smoked as
if they enjoyed them. They were great talkers, and jolly. Later,
the guberuador, Palowahtiwa, called. He was the chief or governor.
Several sub-chiefs and the herald of the town came with him. A
friendly interview was enjoyed, and the governor retired, professing
high regard for "Americans."
Mr. Gushing describes Zuni by saying : " Every schoolboy sketches
a map of the Zuni basin, when he attempts with uncertain stroke to
draw on his slate a cart-wheel. The city itself represents the jagged
hub, whence the radiating, wavering traits form the spokes, and the
surrounding mesas and hills the rim. Let some crack across the
slate and through the middle of the picture indicate the river, and
your map is complete."
Unlike the nomadic tribes of the West, the Zunis are a very
92
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
industrious people. They understand agriculture and pursue it, rais-
ing wheat, corn, and vegetables quite largely. Pumpkins, onions,
and watermelons are their favorites. The donkey serves them for
a beast of burden ; and they raise cattle and sheep, weaving the wool
of the latter into garments. Until recently they produced all the
cloth that was worn by the tribe. Now, the visitor sees occasionally
American goods, which traffic has brought to them. They under-
stand the art of pottery, and produce jars and other vessels of attrac-
tive design. The goat is an important domestic animal among them,
and fowl of all kinds are raised. The eagle is a sacred bird, and
large numbers of them are seen about the town.
ZUNI ALTARS AND INCANTATION SCENE.
Francis Pilett, who has visited the tribe, says : —
" Each dwelling is provided with a loom, which forms a conspic-
uous part of the furniture. It consists of two sticks, between which
the threads, of the width of the blanket to be made, are spread, the
whole arrangement being fastened to the floor and ceiling by raw-
hide strings. The operator squats on the ground, using for a shuttle
a stick to which the wool for the cross-threads is fastened. The
operation of weaving is skilfully performed, although a long time is
required in the manufacture of one of their blankets."
MARVELS OF RACE,
193
The Zuni altars are very sacred to them. If they do not take
their shoes from their feet as they approach them, they do what is
far more expressive of reverence and solemnity. The enclosure con-
taining an altar is represented by a cut on the preceding page, and
no one is allowed to enter it until the grave official conducting them
takes a small quantity of white powder from a bag suspended from
his neck, and, placing it upon a silver plate which hangs on his girdle,
blows it into the air, accompanied with some strange mutterings of
incantation, after
which the visitor
may enter. The
meaning of this per-
formance is simply
this : it is an invoca-
tion to the spirit of
Montezuma to re-
turn soon and fulfil
his promise to bless
and lead them. No
one but the high-
priest knows where
the white powder
comes from nor what
it is.
Outside the town,
though near by, is
a large farm on
which vegetables are
raised. It is divided
into patches, or gar-
dens, one for each
family, as represen-
ted by the cut ; and
here much labor is expended. The farm is watered by irrigation,
which this people appear to understand, the Rio Zuni furnishing the
water.
The Zunis hate the Mexicans, but respect Americans. The gover-
nor said to Mr. Pilett : "The Americans treat us well, but the Mexi-
cans very badly ; the latter have always maltreated us, and we want
them neither to go through our country nor to reside among us. The
heavens punish us by long drought for allowing them to remain in
ZUNI VEGETABLE GARDEN.
194
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
the Colorado Chiquito. My cacig?ie, who prays for rain, and who is.
the spiritual and imperial ruler of this people, watches the sun daily,
and is much distressed because no rain falls. He attributes the
drought to the presence of the Mexicans on our soil."
Mr. Pilett also relates the following : —
*' The governor very cheerfully and politely accompanied us.
through the village. As the cachina dancers came in sight, and we
halted to witness the ceremony, an elderly man approached and re-
monstrated with the governor for allowing us to look upon this form
of worship. In reply to the remonstrance, Pedro Pino informed the
ZUNI FARM-HOUSE.
intruder that he would allow us ; ' but,* said he, ' no Mexican shall ever
look upon the performance of this holy and sacred rite. The Ameri-
cans,' he continued, 'have ever been our friends, and are good and
excellent people. I have been in Washington, and have seen such
men as Monroe and Calhoun, and have been in the halls of Congress.
These men,' pointing to us, ' come from Washington, and I know
they are good men.' "
The above is a good representation of a Zuni farm-house, built of
adope, of course, and well adapted to the purpose for which it is
erected. Near it are the faithful donkeys, with their burdens, and a
sample of the Zuni cart. In summer, half of the tribe remove into-
MARVELS OF RACE. 195
the country to cultivate their farms, the famihes dwelling apart from
each other, or in small settlements.
Mr. Gushing discovered that there were thirteen orders or socie-
ties in the tribe, some of them strictly secret, and no white man had
ever witnessed their ceremonial. But he succeeded in getting into
them by dint of perseverance and strategy. He speaks of them as
follows : —
'' Functionally they are divisible into four classes : Those of War,
of the Priesthood, of Medicine, and of the Chase ; yet the elements
of every one of these classes may be traced in each of all the others.
"Of the first class (Martial) there is but one society — the ' A-pi-
thlan-shi-wa-ni,' or the ' Priests of the Bow,' at once the most power-
ful and the most perfectly organized of all native associations, in
some respects resembling the Masonic order, being strictly secret or
esoteric ; it is possessed of twelve degrees, distinguished by distinc-
tive badges.
*' Of the second class (Ecclesiastical) there is also but one order —
the ' Shi-wa-ni-kwe,' or society of priests, of the utmost sacred impor-
tance, yet less strictly secret than the first.
*' Of the third class (Medical) are the ' Ka-shi-kwe ' and ' A-tchi-a-
kwe,' or cactus and knife orders — the martial and civil surgeons of
the nation; the ' Ne-we-kwe ' and 'Thle-we-kwe,' or the gourmands
and stick-swallowers ; * Bearers of the Wand,' who treat diseases of
the digestive system ; the ' Ka-ka-thla-na-kwe ' and * Ma-ke-thla-na-
kwe,' or grand ka-ka (dance) and grand fire orders, who treat inflam-
matory diseases ; the * Ma-ke-tsa-na-kwe ' and * Pe-sho-tsi-lo-kwe,' or
the lesser fire and insect orders, who treat burns, ulcers, cancers,
and parasitic complaints; the ' U-hu-hu-kwe,' or 'Ahem' (cough)
order, who treat colds, etc. ; and lastly, the ' Tchi-to-la-kwe,' or rattle-
snake order, who treat the results of poisoning, actual or supposed,
resulting from sorcery or venomous wounds.
*' Of the fourth class (Hunters) there is again but one order — the
' San-ia-k'ia-kwe,' or 'Tus-ki-kwe,' blood or coyote order — the hunters
of the nation.
"To all these a fourteenth organization might be added, were it
not too general to be regarded as esoteric, notwithstanding its opera-
tions are strictly secret and sacred. I refer to the much quoted,
misspelled, and otherwise abused 'Ka-ka,' 'the Dance,' which is
wonderfully perfect in structure, and may be regarded as the national
church, and, like the church with ourselves, is rather a sect than a
society.
196 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
** Perhaps the Priesthood of the Bow is the only truly esoteric of
all these bodies, since members of it may be admitted to meetings
of all the others, while members of the other societies are strictly
excluded from the meetings of this.
** Early learning this, I strove for nearly two years to gain member-
ship in it, which would secure at once standing with the tribe and
entrance to all sacred meetings, as well as eligibility to the Head
Chieftaincies. We succeeded, and the memory of my experience
in this connection is a deeply interesting chapter of my life."
Mr. Gushing was a Zuni now so far as dress could make him.
But there was other experience for him before he could be fully
established in the confidence of the tribe. The Governor confided
in him, and insisted upon calling him, *'My little Brother." He
demanded, also, that Mr. Gushing should call him ''My old Brother."
This additional experience he rehearsed thus : —
" One evening, the Governor beckoned me to follow, as he led the
way into the mud-plastered little room, whither he had unearthed my
head-band. In one corner stood a forge, over which a blanket had
been spread. All trappings had been removed, and the floor had
been freshly plastered. A little arched fireplace in the corner oppo-
site the forge was aglow with pinon, which lighted even the smoky
old rafters and the wattled willow ceiling. Two sheepskins and my
few belongings, a jar of water, and a wooden poker were all the fur-
nishings. 'There,' said he, 'now you have a little house, what more
do you want t Here, take these two blankets, — they are all you can
have. If you get cold, take off all your clothes and sleep next to the
sheepskins, and think you are warm, as the Zuni does. You must
sleep in the cold and on a hard bed ; that will harden your meat.
And you must never go to Dust-eye's house [the Mission], or to
Black-beard's [the trader's] to eat ; for I want to make a Zuni of you.
How can I do that if you eat American food "> ' With this he left me
for the night.
" I suffered immeasurably that night. The cold was intense, and
the pain from my hard bed excruciating. Although next morning,
with a mental reservation, I told the Governor I had passed a good
night, yet I insisted on slinging my hammock lengthwise of the little
room. To this the Governor's reply was : ' It would not be good for
it to hang in a smoky room, so I have packed it- away.' I resigned
myself to my hard fate and harder bed, and suffered throughout long
nights of many weeks rather than complain or show any unwilling-
ness to have my ' meat hardened.'
MARVELS OF RACE. 1 97
"An old priest, whom I had seen at the head of one of the dances,
and whose fine bearing and classic, genial face had impressed me,
used to come and chat occasionally of an evening with the Governor,
in the other room. Often, as he sat in the fire-light, his profile
against the blazing background made me wonder if the ghost of
Dante had not displaced the old Indian for a moment, so like the
profile of the great poet was the one I looked upon. He had con-
ceived a great affection for me, and his visits became more and more
frequent, until at last one day he told me his name was Lai-iu-ah-
tsai-lun-kia, but that I must forget his name whenever I spoke to
him, and call him * father.' Now that I wore the head-band and
moccasins of his people, his attentions were redoubled, and he
insisted constantly that I should dress entirely in the native costume,
and have my ears pierced. That would make a complete Zuni of
me, for had I not eaten Zuni food long enough to have starved four
times, and was not my flesh, therefore, of the soil of Zuni } '
" I strongly opposed his often repeated suggestions, and at last he
so rarely made them that I thought he had altogether given up the
idea.
" One day, however, the Governor's wife came through the door-
way with a dark blue bundle of cloth, and a long, embroidered red
belt. She threw the latter on the floor, and unrolled the former,
which proved to be a strip of diagonal stuff about five feet long by
a yard in width. Through the middle a hole was cut, and to the
edges, either side of this hole, were stitched with brightly colored
strips of fabric, a pair of sleeves. With a patronizing smile, the old
woman said : —
" * Put this on. Your brother will make you a pair of breeches,
and then you will be a handsome young man.'
" Under her instructions I stuck my head through the central
hole, pushed my arms down into the little blanket sleeves, and gath-
ered the ends around my waist, closely securing them with the
embroidered belt. The sudden appearance of the Governor was the
signal for the hasty removal of the garment. He folded it up and
put it away under the blanket on the forge. Long before night he
had completed a pair of short, thin, black cotton trousers, and
secured a pair of long, knitted blue woollen leggins.
"'Take off that blue coat and rag necklace,' said he, referring to
my blue flannel shirt and a tie of gray silk. * What ! another coat
under that. Take it off.'
" I removed it.
198 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
"* There, now! Go over into that corner and put these breeches
on. Don't wear anything under them.'
"Then the coarse woollen blanket shirt was again put on as
before, only next to my skin. There were no seams in this remark-
able garment, save where the sleeves were attached to the shoulders,
and from the elbows down to the wrists. The sides, a little below
the armpits, and the arms inside down to the elbow, were left
entirely exposed. I asked the Governor if I could not wear the
under-coat.
"'No,' said he. 'Didn't I say you must have your meat
hardened 1 '
" Fortunately, however, a heavy gray serape, striped with blue and
black, and fringed with red and blue, was added to this costume.
One of the young men gave me a crude copper bracelet, and the old
priest presented me with one or two strings of black stone beads for
a necklace.
"The first time I appeared in the streets in full costume the Zunis
were delighted. Little children gathered around me ; old women
patronizingly bestowed compliments on me as their 'new son, the
child of Wa-sin-to-na.' I found the impression was good, and per-
mitted the old Governor to have his way. In fact, it would have
been rather difficult to have done otherwise, for, on returning to my
room, I found that every article of civilized clothing had disappeared
from it."
But his ears were not yet pierced, for he steadily opposed it.
Thinking, however, that there might be some meaning or significance
in the operation which he might learn, he submitted. Boring the
ear was attended with imposing ceremonials, closing with a long
prayer, in which he was recommended to the gods as a " Child of the
Sun." The Zunis are not Catholics, but sun-worshippers. At the
close of the ceremony, the Governor said : —
" And thus become thou my son, Te-na-tsa-li." His wife added : —
"This day thou art made my younger brother, Te-na-tsa-li."
Other members of the group came forward, repeating some part of
the ceremonial, and closing with the repetition of his new name,
"Te-na-tsa-li." Then the Governor led him to the window, and
said : —
" You are named after a magical plant which grows on a single
mountain in the west, the flowers of which are the most beautiful in
the world, and of many colors ; and the roots and juices of it are a
panacea for all injuries to the flesh of man. By this name, which
MARVELS OF RACE. 1 99
only one man in a generation can bear, you will be known as long
as the sun rises and sets, and smiles on the Corn people of earth, as
a Shi-wi (Zuni)."
The Zunis are extremely hospitable. They have no beds to offer
a visitor, but a plenty of nice blankets. They have few luxuries to
set before a guest, but good bread and meat in abundance. Their
furniture is scanty, but the visitor can always find a seat on the plas-
tered floor. Their language is much like that of the Pueblos, a sort
of monkey-chatter, but their gesticulations and facial contortions gen-
erally make its meaning plain. Their dress, too, is civilized, though
homespun. Of this, Mr. Pilett says : —
'' Their dress is simple, that of the men being merely cotton draw-
ers and shirt, with blue woollen stockings of their own manufacture ;
a turban of wool or cotton completes the male attire. The females
wear a gown of wool, held at the waist by a sash of the same mate-
rial ; the arms and shoulders are left bare ; their stockings same as
those worn by the men ; for shoes, both males and females wear moc-
casins of buckskin. When in the street, the women cover the head
and shoulders with a white cloth."
Mr. Gushing took advantage of his transformation into a Zuni,
to learn the secrets of the tribe, domestic, social, and religious.
•Of course he learned many curious things ; and we shall close this
-account by quoting his description of one of the festivals he wit-
nessed.
We turn aside, however, to give the opinion of a writer who speaks
from personal knowledge of the antiquity of this people. '' We are
enabled to locate the Zuni tribe as far back as 1456," he says, "and
as their traditions point to a westward origin, we may, we think, safely
conclude that the chain of ancient villages remarked by us between
the Rio Verde and Camp Apache, Arizona, as well as the caves near
the Verde — still strewn with fragments of pottery, some of which is
identical with that still in use by the Zunis — were occupied by this
people centuries before the appearance of Columbus on the eastern
•coast ; but whether this is an indigenous civilization, or of Toltec,
Aztec, or Asiatic origin, it seems quite impossible, in the light of
present knowledge, to determine. The theories concerning the gene-
sis of the Aztecs and Toltecs are almost as numerous as the writers
on that subject."
Also, their traditions, as far as Mr. Pilett was able to understand,
.he puts briefly thus : —
"The traditions of the Zuni are few and simple. They say their
200 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
people came from the northwest on their march southward ; that all
Pueblo Indians belong to a common race, and are all members of the
large families called Aztecs, or Montezumas ; that some of their fore-
fathers remained behind in the great migration of the nation, while
the large body pursued a southerly course, ultimately forming the
mighty empire of Mexico, as found by Cortez after its conquest ; that>
long before the white man came, their people inhabited the mesa south
of their town. They have traditions, also, of a flood ; of the founding
of their present pueblo ; of their war with the Spaniards, and their
subjugation, by the latter, for a time ; of the arrival of the first Amer-
ican in New Mexico, and of the Mexican and Navajo War. But their
knowledge of these events is merely outline, they being unable to
give any details."
All explorers agree that Zuni life strikingly resembles ancient life
in Palestine. The manners and customs, methods of doing work,
implements of husbandry, women carrying jars of water upon their
heads, and other things, are suggestive of style of life once lived in
the Holy Land. Mr. Gushing says, " As I sat watching the women
coming and going to and from the well, ' How strangely parallel,' I
thought, ' have been the lines of development in this curious civiliza-
tion of an American desert, with those of Eastern nations and des-
erts.' Clad in blanket dresses, mantles thrown gracefully over their
heads, each with a curiously decorated jar in her hand, they came one
after another down the crooked path. A little passage-way through
the gardens, between two adobe walls to our right, led down rude
steps into the well, which, dug deeply in the sands, had been walled
up with rocks, like the pools of Palestine, and roofed over with reeds
and dirt. Into this passage-way and down to the dark, covered spring
they turned, or lingered outside to gossip with new-comers while
awaiting their chances, meanwhile slyly watching, from under their
black hair, the strange visitors from ' Wa-sin-to-na.' These water-
carriers were a picturesque sight, as with stately step and fine carriage
they followed one another up into the evening light, balancing their
great shining water-jars on their heads."
To return from this digression to the festival which Mr. Gushing
describes. Eighteen days before, the Governor said to him, " Little
brother, make your heart glad ; a great festival is now every one's,
thought. Eighteen days more, and from the west will come the
Sha-la-k'o ; it welcomes the return of the Ka-ka and speeds the
departure of the Sun. Make your heart glad, for you shall see it
too."
MARVELS OF RACE. 20I
There was great opposition to his witnessing this festival ; but the
decision of the Governor, who had become strongly attached to his
ward, settled the matter ; whereupon he was instructed as follows : —
'' 'When you go in, little brother, you must breathe on your hand,
and, as you step into the fire-light, you must say, " My fathers, how
are you these many days ? " They will reply, " Happy, happy ! " You
must not touch one of them, nor utter a single word in Spanish or
American, nor whistle. But you must behave very gravely, for it is
dk-ta-7ii [fearful] in the presence of the gods. If you should happen
to forget, and say a Spanish word, hold out your left hand and then
your right, one foot and then the other, and they will strike them
very hard with a wand of yucca.'
"The messenger guided me to the low door, which I entered,
breathing audibly on my hand. Stepping into the brightly light-
ed centre of the room, I started off very well with, ' My fathers,*
{Horn a td-tchti), but here broke down ; and, placing the candles and
tobacco on the floor, with a muttered apology, I unfortunately finished
partly in Spanish. Instantly two or three of the sprawling priests
started up exclaiming ' S/m ! shu ! ' and stretched their hands excit-
edly toward me. One of them took a wand from the front of the
altar, and gravely advanced toward me. Without a word, I stretched
out my hand, and he hit me a terrific blow directly across the wrist.
Never wincing, however, although the pain was excruciating, I
stretched out the other hand and my two feet in succession, receiving
the hard blows on each. I breathed on my hand, and said, E-lah-kwa
(thanks !). The priest spat on the wand, smiled, and waved it four
or five times around my head. The white-haired father of the ten
then approached me, placed his finger on his lips as a warning,
thanked me for the presents, and asked that the * light of the gods
might shine on my path of life.' But he directed that I be hustled
away, for fear I might commit some other indiscretion.
" I had gained my object, however, in merely entering the room.
It was large. At the western end stood an altar, composed of tablets
of various heights and widths, strangely carved and painted in repre-
sentation of gods, and set up in the form of a square. At the back
were larger tablets, on and through which figures of the sun, moon,
and stars were painted and cut. Within the square stood a number
of sacred wands of long macaw feathers inserted into beautiful wicker-
work handles. Overhead hung the figure of a winged god, a little
in front of and below which was suspended horizontally an elaborate
cross. It was composed of two tablets, carved to zigzag points at the
202 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
ends, and joined at the centre, so as to resemble a wind-mill with four
arms. Numerous eagle plumes depended from the lower edges of
the four arms, on each of which was perched the efifigy of a swallow.
Underneath this stood a large medicine-bowl with terraced edges. It
was crowded with figures of fi'ogs, tadpoles, and dragon-flies, and con-
tained a clear, yellowish fluid. Over this two of the priests were
crouching and muttering incantations. Behind the altar, partly cov-
ered with little embroidered cotton kilts, were the warty masks and the
neck-cloths of these priestly clowns. Almost immediately on enter-
ing, my guide had uttered prayers and scattered medicine flour over
them. All along the walls of the great room, now vivid in the fire-
light, now indistinct in the flickering shadows, were painted in red,
green, blue, and yellow, the figures of animals, birds, human mon-
sters, demons, and significant pictographs.
" This little glimpse revealed to me a mysterious life by which I
had little dreamed I was surrounded, and I looked forward with curi-
ous anxiety to the coming ceremonials.
"That night, on my way home, I saw great fires blazing on the
southwestern hills. I could hear the sound of rattles, and the long,
weird cries of the dancers, whose forms were too distant to be seen
even against the snow-sprinkled slopes. *The Long-horn and the
Hooter, the wand-bearers and the sacred guardians, whom you shall
see four days hence,' said my brother, as he opened the door to let
me in, and motioned with his head in the direction of the sounds.
"During the next day, hundreds of Navajos, Moquis, and Indians
from the Rio Grande pueblos, gathered in from the surrounding coun-
try. Everybody was busy. Oxen were slaughtered by the dozen,
sheep by the hundred. In every household some of the men could
be seen sewing garments both for themselves and the women. The
latter were busily engaged in grinding corn, cooking paper-bread over
great polished, black stones, cutting up meat, bringing water, and
weaving new blankets and belts. Outside, continual streams of
burros, heavily laden with wood, came pouring in from the surround-
ing mesas.
" Toward evening, on the second day following, people began to
gather all over the southern terraces, and away out over the plain
there appeared seven gigantic, black-headed white forms, towering
high above their crowd of attendants. Gradually they came toward
the pueblo, stopping, however, midway in the plain across the river,
to perform some curious ceremonials. Meanwhile, eight remarkably
costumed figures preceded them, crossed the river, and passed along
MARVELS OF RACE. 203
the western end of the pueblo. These were the same the Governor
had told me of. The ' Long-horn ' and the ' Hooter ' were clothed
in embroidered white garments, and their faces were covered by hor-
rible ghastly, white masks, with square, black eye and mouth-holes.
Their head-dresses were distinguished from each other only by the
large white appendages, like bat-ears, attached to one of them, while
the other was furnished with a long green horn, from which depended
a fringe of wavy black hair, tufts of which covered the heads of both.
They bore in their right hands clattering rattles made from the shoul-
der-blades of deer, and in their left, painted plumed sticks. Follow-
ing came two red-bodied, elaborately costumed and ornamented char-
acters wearing round, green helmets, across the tops of which were
attached painted round sticks with shell-rattles at either end. They
bore in their hands white deer-horns and plumed sticks, and were,
with the others, guarded by two nearly nude figures with round-
topped, long-snouted red masks, surrounded at the neck by collars of
crow-feathers. They carried rattles like those of the chief figures,
and long yucca wands with which to chastise spectators who might
approach too near.
"All of these were preceded by a gorgeously costumed, bare-
headed priest, with streaks of black, shining paint across his eyes
and Gain, and profusely decorated with turquois ear-rings and shell
necklaces. A snow-white deerskin mantle was thrown gracefully
over his shoulders, and trailed in the dust behind. He carried a
tray of sacred plumes in his hand, and was closely followed by a
representation of the fire-god. This was an entirely nude boy, the
body painted black and covered all over with many-colored round
spots. His face and head were entirely concealed by a round-topped,
equally black and speckled mask or helmet. Slung across his shoul-
der was a pouch made from the skin of a fawn, and in his hand a long,
large smoking torch of cedar bark, which he kept gracefully waving
from side to side.
" The whole party passed rapidly toward one of the plazas, where
a square hole had been dug by the Priest of the Sun. After dancing
back and forth four times to the clang of their rattles, uttering at
intervals cries of hoo too ! hoo too ! the four principal characters,
with long prayers and ceremonials, deposited sacrifices of some of
the plumed sticks. This ceremonial was repeated in the chief plazas
of the pueblo, and outside of it north, south, and east, after which
the whole party, just at sunset, retired into one of the immense
sacred rooms at the southern side of the town.
204 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
" After dusk, the giant figures which had been left on the plain
across the river came in one by one. They were, by all odds, the
most monstrous conceptions I had seen among the Zuni dances.
They were at least twelve feet high. Their gigantic heads were
shocks of long black hair with great horns at the sides, green masks
with huge, protruding eye-balls, and long, pointed, square-ended,
wooden beaks ; and their bodies were draped with embroidered and
tasselled blankets, underneath which only the tiny, bare, painted feet
of the actor could be seen. The spasmodic rolling of the great eye-
balls and the sharp snapping of the beak as it rapidly opened and
closed, together with a fan-shaped arrangement of eagle-feathers at
the back of the head, gave these figures the appearance of angry
monster-birds.
"To each new house of the pueblo one of these monsters was
guided by two priests. The latter were clad in closely fitting buck-
skin armor and round, helmet-like skull-caps of the same material.
Several elaborately costumed flute-players, together with a K6-yi-ma-
shi or two, attended. After prayers and ceremonials before the lad-
ders of the houses to be entered, each, with his two attendant priests,
mounted with great difficulty, descended through the sky-hole, and
was stationed at one end of the room, near the side of an altar,
differing only in details from the one already described as belonging
to the K6-yi-ma-shis. Immense fires of sputtering pinon-wood, and
rude, bowl-shaped lamps of grease, brilliantly lighted up each one of
these closely curtained rooms.
" Toward midnight, my brother explained to me that, in each new
room and sacred house of Zuni, the twelve 'medicine' orders of the
tribe were to meet, and that, as he was a priest of one of them, I
could go with him, if I would sit very quiet in one corner, and not
move, sleep, nor speak during the entire night.
"As we entered the closely crowded, spacious room into which
the first party of dancers had retired, a space was being cleared
lengthwise through the centre, from the altar down toward the oppo-
site end. With many a hasty admonition, the Governor placed me
in a corner so near the hearth that, for a long time, controlled by his
directions, I was nearly suffocated by the heat. Along the northern
side of the room were the dancers, their masks now laid aside. Con-
spicuous among them were the two priests, who were engaged in a
long, rhythmical prayer, chant, or ritual, over eight or ten nearly
prostrate Indians who squatted on the floor at their feet. As soon
as this prayer was ended, great steaming bowls of meat, trays of
MARVELS OF RACE. 20$
paper-bread, and baskets of melons were placed in rows along the
cleared space. A loud prayer was uttered over them by an old
priest, who held in his hands a bow, some arrows, and a war-club,
and who wore over one shoulder a strange badge of buckskin orna-
mented with sea-shells and flint arrow-heads. He was followed by
the Priest of the Sun, from the other end of the room. The little
fire-god then passed along the array of victuals, waving his torch
'Over them, with which the feast was pronounced ready.
'' Many of the dishes were placed before the dancers and priests
and a group of singers whose nearly nude bodies were grotesquely
painted with streaks and daubs of white. They were gathered,
rattles in hand, around an immense earthen kettle-drum at the left
:side of the altar, opposite the now crouching monster. As soon as
the feast was concluded, many of the women bore away on their
heads, in huge bowls, such of the food as remained.
'* The singers then drawing closely around the drum, facing one
another, struck up a loud chant, which, accompanied by the drum-
ming and the rattles, filled the whole apartment with a reverberating
•din, to me almost unendurable. Two by two the dancers would rise,
;step rapidly and high from one foot to the other, until, covered with
perspiration and almost exhausted, they were relieved by others.
At the close of each verse in the endless chant, the great figure by
the altar would start up from its half-sitting posture, until its head
nearly touched the ceiling, and, with a startling series of reports,
would clap its long beak and roll its protruding eyes in time to the
music.
"When the little fire-god took his place in the centre of the room,
no one relieved him for more than an hour and a half, and I feared
momentarily that he would drop from sheer exhaustion. But I
learned later that this was a trial ceremonial, and that it was one of
the series of preparations which he had to pass through before
becoming a priest, to which rank his birth rendered him eligible.
''Just as the morning star was rising, the music ceased, the con-
gregation became silent, and the chief dancer was led to the centre
of the room, where he was elaborately costumed. Then the Priest
of the Sun took him up the ladder to the roof, where, facing the east,
he pronounced in measured, solemn tones a long prayer to the wan-
ing Sun of the Old Year. Descending, he pronounced before the
multitude (signalizing the end of each sentence with a clang of his
rattles) a metrical ritual of even greater length. Then the spectators
gathered around the altar, and hastily said their prayers, the sound
206 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
of which reminded me of a recitation in concert in a large school-
room. The sun rose, and they dispersed to their various homes.
" Some time after, the dancers, one by one, still in costume, passed
over the river toward the southward ; and the monsters, to the
sounds of chants, accompanied by rude music on the flutes, were
guided across to a flat, snow-covered plain, where, in the presence
of the assembled priests of Zuni, — but no others, — they ran back
and forth, one after another, over a great square, planted plumed
sticks at either end of it, and, forming a procession, slowly marched
away and vanished among the southern hills. Toward evening no
fewer than seven curious dance-lines of the ka-ka at one time occu-
pied the principal court. Most of that, as well as of the three suc-
ceeding nights, were passed in ceremonials at the sacred houses and
estiifas. With this the great festival was over. The assembled
Indian visitors, laden with food and the products of Zuni looms,
departed for their various tribal homes."
The Zunis and Moquis cannot understand each other. Yet, in
their general appearance, they are alike. A description of the domes-
tic and social life of one tribe would be essentially a description of
the other. The following account of the Moquis is equally correct of
the Zunis : —
*'The women looked neat and contented, seeming to be always
busy, some weaving their thick woollen dresses, others grinding
grain or baking their curious wafer-like bread, accompanying the
labor with strange, weird songs. The grinding is done by three
^women, who kneel over stone troughs sunken into the floor. Slabs
of stone of different degrees of roughness are placed like a wash-
board in the troughs, and on these the grinding is done by rubbing
the grain with another stone of the size and shape of a small rolling-
pin. The first reduces the grain, which has been already cracked, to
meal, the next makes it finer, and the third turns it out a fine flour.
It thus passes from one trough to another, occupying nearly an hour
in the process. The women, mostly young, and some of them quite
pretty, work with a coquettish merriment, keeping perfect time with
their music, throwing their bodies forward together, so as to bring
nearly their whole weight upon the mill. Their long, glossy hair,
which is kept very clean, is tossed freely about their necks, adding
much to their grace and beauty.
" One room of each house is devoted to grinding and baking, the
latter process being even more curious than the former. A smooth
slab of slate two feet square is fixed in the large fireplace and heated
MARVELS OF RACE. 207
by coals. The hand is dipped into a thin dough of the consistency
of cream, and then rubbed quickly over the stone, this being repeated
four or five times, till a cake is formed covering the entire stone, yet
no thicker than tissue-paper. Only a few seconds are occupied in
the baking, when the bread is taken off, and the operation repeated,
till a few quarts of dough are manufactured into perhaps a thousand
tortillas, one of which would hardly make a mouthful, but the thou-
sand would cover the floors of five large rooms. These sheets are
made into rolls, a dozen or more being rolled together, and are then
eaten literally by the yard."
Mr. Cozzens paid this singular people a visit, and enjoyed their
hospitality. We condense the substance of what he says about them
as follows : —
'' Their villages, of which there are seven, are built upon the very
edge of these rocky mesas, in so singular a manner that, at a little
distance, it is impossible for a stranger to distinguish them from the
rocks, of which they appear to form a part. The first three of these
are built upon a bluff of solid rock, about three hundred feet high,
and one hundred and fifty feet in width, and are reached by steep
paths and by steps cut into the rock in such a manner that they can
only be approached by persons on foot.
"The houses are built of stone, are generally two stories high, and
are laid in a mortar made of mud, which is brought from the valleys
below upon the backs of men, there being no soil whatever upon the
rocks. In form they are similar to those of Zuni, entrance to them
being by ladders, as there are neither doors nor windows in the lower
istories.
"The first and largest town is called Harro ; and contains a popu-
lation of about two thousand persons. . . . The population of all the
villages is supposed to be about six thousand.
" Of their religious belief : They believe in a Great Father, who
•dwelt where the sun rises, and of a Great Mother, who lived where
the sun sets. She peopled the earth by bringing from her own home
nine things, from which sprang the different races of men. First,
the deer race ; second, the sand race ; third, the water race ; fourth,
the bear race ; fifth, the hare race ; sixth, the prairie-wolf race ;
seventh, the rattlesnake race ; eighth, the tobacco-plant race ; and
ninth, the seed-grass race. That after death, they assumed the form
from which they originally sprang, thus aiding to form anew the
decaying elements of the earth.
^'They never plough or irrigate their lands, depending entirely
208
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
upon the natural fall of rain ; their only agricultural implement is a
kind of hoe ; with this they plant corn, beans, onions, melons, pump-
kins, cotton, and a species of tobacco-plant, in the valleys around
MARVELS OF RACE. 209
them. They also knit, weave, and spin very nicely, as do the Zunis
and the others of the Pueblo tribes.
" One very singular fact is, that, while the whole seven villages are
within a radius of six miles, the people of Harro speak a different
language from those of the remaining six villages, and seem to have
preserved their manners and customs intact, as well as their language,
for centuries ; and another singular fact is, that, while the people of
Harro understand and can converse in the language spoken by the
people of the other villages, the latter neither understand nor can
converse in the language spoken by the people of Harro. . . .
" I was surprised, upon offering them some whiskey, to have them
decline it ; also, to learn that the vice of drunkenness was unknown
among them, and that they used no kind of fermented liquors, not-
withstanding Neal Dow and the Prohibitory Law were strangers to
them. I also learned that the crime of murder was unknown in their
nation, that they never made war, but were brave and valiant when
attacked.
"Their dress was similar to that of the Pueblo Indians, and in
general appearance they strongly resembled them ; although I fancied
them more intelligent looking, their faces having a frank and manly
expression ; in fact, save in dress and complexion, they resembled
American rather than Indian nationality.
"Their women are very pretty as well as industrious, and have a
manner of dressing their hair which, to the initiated, proclaims their
condition in life. If unmarried, they do it up in two inverse rolls,
which give to the head a very singular appearance, not unlike that of
having horns ; after marriage, it is worn in two large braids on each
side of the face. . . .
" Each house has its patron saint, represented by an ugly little
Aztec image, made of wood or clay, gaudily painted and gorgeously
decorated with feathers. These images are suspended by a string
from the rafters of their houses, and are supposed to exert a great
influence for weal or woe over its inmates.
" Every village has an estiifa underground, or, more properly, a
council-chamber, which is used as a public room ; here the people are
wont to congregate, to sit and smoke and talk over the affairs of the
nation. The only light or air is obtained from a scuttle in the roof,
which also serves as a door.
" From all I could learn of the Moquis, I concluded that they were
a simple, moral, industrious, and hospitable people, and without doubt
are legitimate descendants of the Aztec race."
2IO
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
MEXICANS.
The blood of the Spaniard and nomadic Indian mixed produced
the Mexican. From personal observation we say that he has much
in common with the people already described. In his habits and
customs, superstitions, methods of labor, occupation, implements of
husbandry, and decided opposition to progress, he resembles the
Pueblos and their coadjutors.
The house which the typical Mexican occupies is built of sun-
dried brick (adobe), usually eighteen inches long, nine wide, and
four thick, as the house of his early ancestor was, over three hundred
years ago.
Short straw is
mixed with the
clay of which
these bricks
are made, in
order to hold
them together.
They are laid
with mortar
made of the
same material.
When the
height for the oV^meor D...k.u. Ra,
roof is reached,
straight poles are laid close together, with a slight incline from one
wall to its parallel wall. A coating of stiff mud is spread over these
poles, and over that loose earth. The mud floor is levelled and
smoothed, a fireplace constructed of adobe in one corner, a small
door made and one or more windows ; and this is a Mexican dwelling.
Within a few years, since the railroad, telegraph, and telephone, and
other improvements of modern civilization, have been thrust upon
them, the more intelligent and enterprising class are imitating
Americans somewhat in the construction of their houses. But the
typical Mexican loves the old architecture of his forefathers still.
He clings, also, to the ancient mode of dress. Fashions never
change with him. From time immemorial the Mexican dress has
been substantially the same.
Mexicans have adopted few modern improvements to facilitate
work. Machines that are prevalent in the New West, among Ameri-
LIFE IN NEW MEXICO.
MARVELS OF RACE.
211
" "vViien spring openSj
MEXICAN CART.
cans, in farming and the mechanic arts, are not used by them.
We saw Mexicans reaping grain with a knife that resembled the
sickle of Palestine, the same as that used by their forefathers. Their
plough is especially ancient, — the crooked stick of the Orient. Their
method of grinding is similar. The burro, or donkey, is the Mexi-
can's favorite beast of burden.
The following illustrations will enforce the foregoing remarks by
showing that, in some things, Mexican life
is identical with that of the Pueblos.
A traveller who has been much among
the Mex":ans says : —
the average Mexi-
can farmer rouses
from his day-
dreams that he
has been enjoy-
ing, wrapped in
his blanket, while
sitting in the sun on the warm side of the house. He calls in the
neighbors, and ploughing begins. He gets the neighbors to assist
him for two reasons. First, because he is decidedly a gregarious
animal ; he loves to work in a crowd. Besides this, in this ploughing
business there is economy in running a number of teams at once, for
the education of the Mexican ox is peculiar. For when that wooden
pole with the block on the end, by courtesy called a plough, is fastened
to his yoke, he expects one able-bodied man to walk in front, while
another holds the single
handle of the plow. But
if another yoke of cattle
is behind, they will follow
the first plough, and so the
more the merrier, and the
work goes bravely on.
The land is ploughed full
two inches deep ; the corn is planted and is ready for the water from
the irrigating ditches."
No miller is required to run the following mill. It can grind but
three bushels of corn in a day. Mexicans would not have it grind
any more, if it could ; for it ground no more than that in a day for
their ancestors. The farmer takes his grist to the mill, where he
finds the raw-hide hopper waiting to receive it. Into this hopper he
MEXICAN PLOUGH.
212
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
pours his grist, which slowly trickles down between the native mill-
stones — slowness being one of the marvels of Pueblo and Mexican
work. One of these stones is fastened to the top of an upright
wooden shaft, while the lower end has projecting boards which serve
as floats to catch the force of the stream which flows against it.
The cut on p. 213 represents the adobe fireplace, of which we have
spoken, large, and in keeping with its Mexican surroundings. The trav-
eller already quoted says : ''The interior of the Mexican house, where
I made my corn purchase, was so similar to others that a description is
in order. The walls are built of adobe, and washed outside and inside
with plaster of Paris, with a border near the floor, of yellow mica>
MEXICAN FLOUR-MILL.
which gives a fine effect. The floor is of the same composition as
the walls, while the roof is of poles covered with earth. The win-
dows are very small, and in many cases the rude sash is covered with
cloth. The fireplace is very shallow and high, pointed and propor-
tioned like a Gothic window ; burns the wood on end ; gives out a
great light and heat ; is kept scrupulously clean, and is every way a
success. A bedstead stood in the corner, but I found out afterward
that bedsteads were never used except to hold the bedding through
the day. At night everything comes down on to the floor, and is.
spread there."
MARVELS OF RACE.
215
The same writer describes the Mexicans as follows : —
"The male specimen, if he is poor, wears a blanket of home man-
ufacture for a coat ; a cheap hat, buckskin pantaloons, and moccasins
complete his dress.
"■ He was born a Catholic, but if you ask him for a reason for the
faith that is within him, he replies with the ' Quien Sabe,' or who
knows, which he uses in all cases when he is ignorant or in doubt ;
and one or the other of these conditions covers most of his life. If he
can talk a little English, look out for him. If he cannot, he will treat
you well and divide his
last morsel of food with
you, if necessary.
'' He is not very fond
of work, but when it is
absolutely necessary to
buy candles and pay the
musicians for a dance,
or buy whiskey, you can
rely on him for working
as long as the necessity
lasts.
"He does not talk
good Spanish ; it is so
mixed with the language
of the Utes or Navajo,
from which he is partial-
ly descended.
" His richer neighbor,
who owns the cattle in the vicinity, most likely can talk better, and
write and read a little, although schools are so uncommon with them
that all my attempts to give them any information in regard to Spain,
or any country in Europe, were failures. For when they found that
such places were across the sea, their minds refused to grasp more,
and they would tell me that that was enough.
"A Mexican happened into a telegraph office. Its mysteries
haunted him, until we met one evening, and he asked me to explain
them. I rashly thought it could be done, and commenced a descrip-
tion of the way in which magnetism was developed by the acids and
plates of the batteries. But he had never seen any sulphuric acid,
zinc plates, or magnet, and knew nothing of their accomplishments.
A young man witii a group of friends came to the house at which I.
ADOBE FIREPLACE.
214 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
was stopping, and handing me his hat, asked me to tell the company
what was written on it. I happened to know his name, and saw that
the strange characters were intended for it, and without any hesita-
tion told the audience that that was his name. This was a triumph
for him, as he had brought his friends several miles to prove by me
that he could write. No one of them could tell, as they could neither
read nor write themselves. After this happy disposal of the case, it
occurred to him of the hat to arrange some business between us so
that I should pay a friend of his some money, in case he completed
a trade with him, which he expected to. 'But how am I to know,' I
asked, ' whether you trade or not } Will you send an order by him
for the money .'' ' This was too much. He could write his name, but
an order for money was too vast a thing. But he got out of the
dilemma by telling me that his friend should wear his hat with his
name on it, if the money was to be paid to him.
" A Mexican woman, with hardly an exception, has black eyes,
and wears a long shawl over her head, with the ends brought around
in front of the face, in such a manner as to leave only the eyes visi-
ble. With this arrangement, the effect is very fine. A swarthy skin
or ugly feature is hidden, while the glorious eyes sparkle at you in
their beauty from among the folds of the shawl.
*' She exists under difficulties. In cooking she is restricted, by
circumstances, to such dishes as can be prepared at a fireplace, with
a small kettle and a flat rock or a piece of sheet iron, on which to
bake cakes. Pies and puddings are unknown, except on great occa-
sions. Besides the scarcity of cooking-utensils, a very small supply
of food curbs any ambitious attempt to excel in cooking. Indeed, so
insignificant is the whole stock of housekeeping utensils, that family
divisions occur with alarming frequency. In that case account of
stock is soon taken, a sheepskin or two and an old kettle being each
one's share.
" When it comes to dress, the poorest ones even are equal to the
emergency ; for when the presence of the musicians on the street
announces the approach of a dance, every v/oman in town is busy
with a judicious system of temporary swaps of clothing, the result of
which is a triumphant display, at the dance, of a combination of dress
entirely new to the wearer. And woman's taste for an appearance
in a costume never seen before, is gratified without the expense of
shopping."
Mexicans are as fond of "The Dance" as the Zunis are. Some
of their dances are only social, others are connected with religious
MARVELS OF RACE, 21 S
ceremonies. But even social dances are a serious matter with them.
They never laugh at a dance, not even at a mistake. The oldest
people among them dance, as well as the youngest. At three or
four years of age Mexican children begin to dance. These facts
show that Mexicans resemble the ancient races discussed in respect
to this amusement, whether social or sacred.
In courtship and marriage ceremony, there is much to remind one
of the Zunis. Also, funeral ceremonies, though differing consider-
ably, nevertheless have striking points of resemblance. The traveller
quoted went to a funeral, and he writes : —
"■ ' Do you care to go to a valoria } ' a friend said one evening.
*What is that.?' I asked. 'Put a candle in your pocket and come
and see,' was the reply. With the candle pocketed, I followed my
companion up the hill to an humble dwelling at the top. As we
entered, we found the four sides of the room occupied by persons
busy in recounting the virtues of their deceased friend, who lay upon
the earth floor, surrounded by burning candles, which had been con-
tributed by the persons entering the house. I added mine to the
number, and watched the proceedings awhile ; but as they were very
monotonous I adjourned.
*' The next day the funeral took place, without any unusual cere-
mony, except the piling of stones whenever the coffin-bearers rested
on the way to the grave.
"These stone piles are to be seen all over New Mexico, in the
vicinity of church-yards."
The presence of dogs and donkeys, in large numbers, in a Mexican
town, reminds one of a Pueblo town. A Mexican family has not a
complete outfit without them.
There is another feature of Mexican life, which strikingly resem-
bles some of the religious ceremonies of the Zunis. The participators
are *' Penitenties " ; and the authority cited describes the occasion
very briefly : —
*' Near every large town may be seen a long adobe building, gen-
erally closed, while inside are large wooden crosses, made from the
unhewn timber of the vicinity. They are of different sizes and
weights, generally from twelve to fifteen feet in length, and six or
seven inches in diameter, and making a good load for the men who
are to carry them.
"Various secret midnight meetings are held during the year. No
one is supposed to know who the members of these societies are, and
2l6 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
no public demonstration is made by the whole society until their
anniversary day in the spring.
'' On this occasion the different penitenties assemble near the
building, form a procession, and carry the crosses through the neigh-
boring valley. As they walk, with their faces covered with a mask
and their backs uncovered, the bystanders beat them with cactus
bushes until the blood streams down their bodies.
** Sometimes they resort to other modes of torture, the idea seem-
ing to be to add as much as possible to their burdens. I have known
three persons to die from the effects of this self-inflicted torture, at
•one meeting ; and this, too, only from one small neighborhood.
Individual members of the society torture themselves at other
times during the year, in various ways, such as lying down in front
■of the churches and begging the people, as they come out, to step
on them, 'for the love of God.' This they do to help the matter
along.
" I have endeavored to find out whether these societies of peni-
tenties are connected with the church ; and, although one priest
with whom I conversed denied it, yet everything looked like it, and
I am forced to the conclusion that it is some kind of an outgrowth
•of their religion, and that it is responsible for it.
''The car of Juggernaut has long ceased to crush its victims; but
here in a territory of the United States is an annual offering of lives
to heathenism."
Mexicans employ themselves, on the whole, very much as the
races described do. They till the earth, raise cattle and sheep, and
manufacture pottery, cloth, and blankets. The women do their
housework, and also wash the wheat for the mill, and sift the bran
from the flour on its return. As all families do not depend on the
mill, women often "grind the grain by rubbing it between a large
stationary stone and a long slim one, which they hold in both hands,
grinding the grain as it slides down the face of the large one, on to
the flesh side of a sheepskin spread out to receive it." The women,
also, plaster the houses with mud, and whitewash them with plaster
of Paris.
The writer already quoted sheds additional light upon the ways of
this people by a graphic sketch of their " Every-day Life," which we
furnish : —
" The furniture of a Mexican house is very simple ; so, too, is
their way of living.
" If you approach a house and wish for a meal or lodging, you will
MARVELS OF RACE, 21/
be welcomed, and invited to enter in the most polite manner. ' Pass
in ' ; ' enter, gentlemen,' is the English of the most common imi-
tation.
*' If you are a relative or a particular friend of the family, the next
thing on the programme is a species of hug, — not a good square hug
as if you enjoyed it, but a rather formal affair, the hands of the
parties being on each others shoulders. This thing is soon over with,
and then comes a smoke all around.
"The finer corn husks make the wrapping for the cigarette.
These are always carried conveniently and are passed around, filled
with fine tobacco, folded and lit, and soon the air is blue with smoke
and vocal with the gossip which is being exchanged.
" Perhaps some one has been elected to some church office, and is
going to give a dance in honor of the event, and the particulars of
that are under discussion.
*' If you propose to stop to a meal and all night, and are an Ameri-
can, you will soon find that you have created quite an excitement.
It rarely happens that one family of the poorer classes have all the
requisites on hand for a good meal ; so one child is despatched one
way to borrow some article, another in a different direction for some-
thing else, while the woman of the house curls down by the fire-
place to get the supper.
" There is a kind of cake they make of flour and water, without
shortening or yeast of any kind. These they work out as thin with
their hands as it is possible to make them, and then fry them floating
in lard. They are brittle and are very good.
*'As I was asked one evening what I would like for supper, I
thought of these cakes, and said I would like some of them.
*' Every one commenced laughing.
*' I was astonished, for they rarely laugh at mistakes. I asked
them if they hadn't plenty of flour.
" ' Yes ! But where shall we catch them } '
" After having plenty of fun at my mistake, they explained that
by using a slightly different word, I had inquired for fried ghosts for
supper.
" I never saw a woman sit at a table but once, and then it was in
response to a remark that I made, that American women always sit
at the table.
"'Yes,' said my host, 'that's so. Come here,' said he to his
wife and daughter ; and without any more delay he had them sitting
at the table with us. They were not used to it, but went through it
2l8
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
very creditably, although I know they had much rather be eating at
the fireplace as usual.
'' On one occasion I was camping near a house of considera-
ble size. The large herd of sheep belonging to the owner told
of wealth ; and when I accepted his invitation to dinner, I was sur-
prised at his asking the loan of a knife and fork from my mess
chest. But when we sat down to dinner, I was more surprised,
for the table was covered with a new piece of Brussels carpeting.
MEXICAN POTTERY.
My knife and fork reposing in solitary state on the carpeted top
of the table, while mine host evidently intended to ladle his din-
ner with a broken-handled spoon, which nestled close to the tin
plate next to him.
" While the women in the kitchen were dishing up the red pepper,
he asked me to name the price I thought he had paid for the carpet,
adding, I have fifty yards in the corner.'
" I made the nearest guess I could, when he told me the cost, and
said he wanted to put it down that afternoon.
" ' What,' I asked, ' on the dirt floor t '
♦'* ' Why not .? ' he replied.
"Then followed a long discussion on the necessity of a board floor.
MARVELS OF RACE, 219
a thing unknown to him ; and, with a long face, he finally resigned
himself to the inevitable expense that was to come.
" The contemplation of a house with one hundred dollars' worth of
carpet in one room, and not a knife or fork in the whole house, was
so comical that I was constantly thinking of it ; and that evening, at
my stopping-place a few miles down the valley, I told my host the
story, forgetting, when I commenced, that I was talking to another
Mexican, who would quite likely take offence at my reflection on his
race. He joined in the laugh, however, but looked awkward enough
at the table that evening, where one could see but little improvement
in his stock of knives and forks over that of his neighbor."
The likeness of Mexicans to the ancient races considered, is seen
also in their knowledge of pottery. They understand the art well.
There is a strikmg resemblance, too, in their methods of manufac-
ture and styles of pottery produced. The illustration exhibits that
similarity in a marked degree.
The foregoing facts confirm the statement with which we began,
— that the Mexican is related to the ancient races described. The
points of difference are few, in comparison with the points of resem-
blance. He belongs to our marvels of race.
220
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
221
III. MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
THE remarkable growth of the New West is one of its marvels.
Less than fifty years ago, the larger part of it was known as the
'' Great American Desert." Reference to the accompanying maps
of the New West as it was and as it is, will satisfy the reader that its
surprising growth is truly a marvel.
It is only forty-five years since Fremont undertook his first explor-
ing expedition, which embraced only a small portion of the New
West, — that portion lying between the Missouri River and the
Rocky Mountains, along the line of the Kansas and Great Platte
rivers. It was regarded as a hazardous enterprise ; and the hardships
and perils of such an expedition were really appalling. The emigrant
or hunter who succeeded in reaching the Rocky Mountains, without
losing his scalp, was considered a fortunate man ; for the savages of
that day were blood-thirsty and cruel. War was the rule, and peace
the exception with the Indians. The diary of one of the party
says : —
** United with the Cheyenne and Gros Ventie Indians, the Sioux
were scouring the upper country in war parties of great force, and
wQre at this moment in the neighborhood of the Red Buttes, a famous
landmark which was directly on our path. They had declared war
upon every living thing which should be found westward of that
point."
It is only a little more than thirty years since the same fearless
explorer, on his fourth expedition, saw his men perish by cold and
hunger in the Rocky Mountains. In a letter to his father-in-law,
Thomas H. Benton, Fremont said : *' Letters which I have forwarded
to Mr. St. Vrain will inform you that we were overtaken by deep
snows in the Rocky Mountains at the head of the Del Norte. We
lost all our animals and ten men, — the mules frozen, and the men
starved to death. Prone only excepted. He was frozen. The mis-
carriage of an express party, sent in under Mr. King, was a secondary
cause of our greatest calamity in the loss of our men. In six days
after leaving my camp in the mountains, I overtook his party, they
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
22
having
death.
been out twenty-two clays, and King having been starved to
In four days afterwards I reached the settlements in time
to save many, but
too late to rescue all
the men." His dia-
ry, at one time, con-
tained the following :
'' The meat train did
not arrive this even-
ing, and I gave
Godey leave to kill
our little dog (Ka-
math), which he pre-
pared in Indian fash-
ion,— scorching off
"he hair, and wash-
ing the skin with
soap and snow, and
then cutting it up
into pieces which
were laid on the
snow. We had to-
night an extraordi-
nary dinner — pea-
soup, mule, and dog."
These sufferings
and perils were en-
dured to find a pas-
sage for civilization
across the New
West to the Pacific
Slope, where now
pleasure-parties ride
in Pullman cars;
and where, within
thirty years, some of
the thriftiest cities
of the world have
risen like magic
upon Indian hunt-
ing grounds.
RAISING THE FLAG.
224 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
It was Fremont who planted the American flag, less than fifty
years ago, upon what was then supposed to be the highest peak of
the Rocky Mountains, where now the tide of commerce rolls. Fre-
mont thus describes the place from which he ascended the peak,
which he called Snow Peak, because its summit bore a burden of
snow under a bright August sun. ''We soon had the satisfaction
to find ourselves riding along the huge wall which forms the central
summit of the chain. There at last it rose by our sides, a nearly
perpendicular wall of granite, terminating two thousand to three
thousand feet above our heads, in a serrated line of broken, jagged
cones. We rode on until we came almost immediately below the
main peak. Here were three small lakes of a green color, each of
perhaps a thousand yards in diameter, and apparently very deep."
He described his climbing the peak as follows : —
" Having divested ourselves of every unnecessary encumbrance,
we commenced the ascent. This time, like experienced travellers,
we did not press ourselves, but climbed leisurely, sitting down so
soon as we found breath beginning to fail. At intervals, we reached
places where a number of springs gushed from the rocks, and about
one thousand eight hundred feet above the lakes came to the snow
line. From this point our progress was uninterrupted climbing.
Hitherto, I had worn a pair of thick moccasins, with soles of par-
fleche ; ^ but here I put on a light thin pair, which I had brought for
the purpose, as now the use of our toes became necessary to a further
advance. I availed myself of a sort of comb of the mountain, which
stood against the wall like a buttress, and which the wind and the
solar radiation, joined to the steepness of the smooth rock, had kept
almost entirely free from snow. Up this I made my way rapidly. . . .
Putting hands and feet in the crevices between the blocks, I suc-
ceeded in getting over it, and, when I reached the top, found my
companions in a small valley below. Descending to them we con-
tinued climbing, and in a short time reached the crest. I sprung
upon the summit, and another step would have precipitated me into
an immense snow-field five hundred feet below. To the edge of this
field was a sheer icy precipice ; and then, with a gradual fall, the
field sloped off for about a mile, until it struck the foot of another
lower ridge. I stood on a narrow crest about three feet in width,
with an inclination of about 20° N. 51° E. As soon as I had grati-
1 *' Parjieche is the name given to buffalo hide. The Indian women prepare it by scraping
and drying. It is exceedingly tough and hard, and receives its name from the circumstance
that it cannot be pierced by arrows or spears."
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 225
iied the first feelings of curiosity, I descended, and each man
ascended in his turn ; for I would only allow one at a time to mount
the unstable and precarious slab, which it seemed a breath would
hurl into the abyss below. We mounted the barometer in the snow
of the summit, and, fixing a ramrod in a crevice, unfurled the national
flag to wave in the breeze where flag never waved before. During
our morning's ascent, we had met no sign of animal life, except a
small bird having the appearance of a sparrow. A stillness the most
profound and a terrible solitude forced themselves constantly on the
mind as the great features of the place. . . . According to the ba-
rometer, the little crest of the wall on which we stood was three thousand
five hundred and seventy feet above our camp, and two thousand seven
hundred and eighty above the little lakes at the bottom immediately
at our feet.
*' Having now made what observation our means afforded, we pro-
ceeded to descend. We had accomplished an object of laudable
ambition, and beyond the strict order of our instructions. We had
climbed the loftiest peak of the Rocky Mountains, and looked down
upon the snow a thousand feet below ; and, standing where never
human foot had stood before, felt the exultation of first explorers. It
was about two o'clock when we left the summit ; and when we reached
the bottom, the sun had already sunk behind the wall, and the day was
drawing to a close. It would have been pleasant to have lingered
here and on the summit longer ; but we hurried away as rapidly as
the ground would permit, for it was an object to regain our party as
soon as possible, not knowing what accident the next hour might
bring forth."
Fremont's later expedition (1849) ^^^ attended by hardships and
sufferings almost unparalleled, showing so striking a contrast with
the comforts of civilization now in the same locality, as to seem in-
credible. The following letter to his wife gives, in detail, a terrible
experience, which nearly cost him his life, where now tourists go for
pleasure : —
Taos, New Mexico, Jan. 27, 1849.
My Very Dear Wife, — I write to you from the house of our good friend Carson.
This morning a cup of chocolate was brought to me vhile yet in bed. To an over-
worn, overworked, much fatigued, and starving traveller, these little luxuries of the
world offer an interest which in your comfortable home it is not possible for you to
conceive. While in the enjoyment of this luxury, then, I pleased myself in imagining
how gratified you would be in picturing me here in Kit's care, whom you will fancy
constantly occupied and constantly uneasy in endeavoring to make me comfortable.
How little could you have dreamed of this while he was enjoying the pleasant hospi-
226 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
tality of your father's house ! The furthest thing then from your mind was that he
would ever repay it to me here.
But I have now the unpleasant task of telling you how I came here. I had much
rather write you some rambling letters in unison with the repose in which I feel
inclined to indulge, and talk to you about the future, with which I am already
busily occupied ; about my arrangements for getting speedily down into the more
pleasant climate of the lower Del Norte, and rapidly through into California ; and
my plans when I get there. I have an almost invincible repugnance to going back
among scenes where I have endured much suffering, and for all the incidents and
circumstances of which I feel a strong aversion. But as clear information is abso-
lutely necessary to you, and to your father more particularly still, I will give you the
story now, instead of waiting to tell it to you in California. But I write in the great
hope that you will not receive this letter. When it reaches Washington, you may
be on your way to California.
Former letters have made you acquainted with our journey so far as Bent's Fort,
and, from report, you will have heard the circumstances of our departure from the
Upper Pueblo of the Arkansas. We left that place about the 25th of November,
with upwards of a hundred good mules, and one hundred and thirty bushels of
shelled corn, intended to support our animals across the snow of the high moun-
tains, and down to the lower parts of the Grand River tributaries, where usually the
snow forms no obstacle to winter travelling. At the Pueblo, I had engaged as a
guide an old trapper, well known as " Bill Williams," and who had spent some
twenty-five years of his life in trapping in various parts of the Rocky Mountains.
The error of our journey was committed in engaging this man. He proved never to
have in the least known, or entirely to have forgotten, the whole region of country
through which we were to pass. We occupied more than half a month in making
the journey of a Yew days, blundering a tortuous way through deep snows, which
already began to choke up the passes, for which we were obliged to waste time in
searching. About the nth December we found ourselves at the north of the Del
Norte Canon, where that river issues from the St. John's Mountain, one of the
highest, most rugged, and impracticable of all the Rocky Mountain ranges, inacces-
sible to trappers and hunters even in the summer time. Across the point of this
elevated range our guide conducted us; and, having still great confidence in his
knowledge, we pressed onwards with fatal resolution. Even along the river bottoms
the snow was already belly-deep for the mules, frequently snowing in the valley, and
almost constantly in the mountains. The cold was extraordinary ; at the warmest
hours of the day (between one and two) the thermometer (Fahrenheit) standing, in
the shade of only a tree trunk, at zero ; the day sunshiny, with a moderate breeze.
We pressed up towards the summit, the snow deepening, and, in four or five days,
reached the naked ridges which lie above the timbered country, and which form the
dividing grounds between the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Along these
naked ridges it storms nearly all winter, and the winds sweep across them with
remorseless fury. On our first attempt to cross we encountered a poudrerie} and
were driven back, having some ten or twelve men variously frozen, — face, hands,
or feet. The guide came very nigh being frozen to death here, and dead mules were
already lying about the fires. Meantime it snowed steadily. The next day we
1 Dry snow driven through the air by violent wind, and in which objects are visible only
at a short distance.
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 22/
made mauls, and, beating a road or trench through the snow, crossed the crest in
defiance of the poudrerie, and encamped immediately below in the edge of the tim-
ber. The trail showed as if a defeated party had passed by : pack-saddles and
packs, scattered articles of clothing, and dead mules strewed along. A contin-
uance of stormy weather paralyzed all movement. We were encamped somewhere
about twelve thousand feet above the sea. Westward, the country was buried in deep
snow. It was impossible to advance, and to turn back was equally impracticable.
We were overtaken by sudden and inevitable ruin. It so happened that the only
places where any grass could be had were the extreme summit of the ridges, where
the sweeping winds kept the rocky ground bare, and the snow could not lie. Below
ENCOUNTERING THE BLIZZARD
these, animals could not get about, the snow being deep enough to bury them.
Here, therefore, in the full violence of the storms, we were obliged to keep our ani-
mals. They could not be moved either way. It was instantly apparent that we
should lose every animal.
I determined to recross the mountain more towards the open country, and haul
or pack the baggage (by men) down to the Del Norte. With great labor the bag-
gage was transported across the crest to the head springs of a little stream leading
to the main river. A few days were sufficient to destroy our fine band of mules.
They generally kept huddled together, and as they froze, one would be seen to
tumble down and the snow would cover him ; sometimes they would break off and
rush down towards the timber, until they were stopped by the deep snow, where they
were soon hidden by the poiidrerie. The courage of the men failed fast ; in fact, I
228 • MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
have never seen men so soon discouraged by misfortune as we were on this occa-
sion ; but, as you know, the party was not constituted like the former ones. But
among those who deserve to be honorably mentioned, and who behaved like what
they were, — men of the old exploring party, — were Godey, King, and Taplin ; and
first of all, Godey. In this situation, I determined to send in a party to the Spanish
settlements of New Mexico for provisions and mules, to transport our baggage to
Taos. With economy, and after we should leave the mules, we had not two weeks'
provisions in the camp. These consisted of a store which I had reserved for a hard
day, macaroni and bacon. From among the volunteers I chose King, Bracken-
ridge, Creutzfeldt, and the guide Williams : the party under the command of King.
In case of the least delay at the settlements, he was to send me an express. In the
meantime we were to occupy ourselves in removing the baggage and equipage down
to the Del Norte, which we reached with our baggage in a few days after their depart-
ure (which was the day after Christmas). Like many a Christmas for years back,
mine was spent on the summit of a wintry mountain, my heart filled with gloomy
and anxious thoughts, with none of the merry faces and pleasant luxuries that belong
to that happy time. You may be sure we contrasted much of this with the last at
Washington, and speculated much on your doings, and made many warm wishes for
your happiness. Could you have looked into Agrippa's glass for a few moments
only ! You remember the volumes of Blackstone which I took from your father's
library, when we were overlooking it at our friend Brant's? They made my Christ-
mas amusements. I read them to pass the heavy time and forget what was around
me. Certainly you may suppose that my first law lessons will be well remembered.
Day after day passed by and no news from our express party. Snow continued to
fall almost incessantly on the mountain. The spirits of the camp grew lower. Proue
lay down in the trail and froze to death. In a sunshiny day, and having with him
means to make a fire, he threw his blankets down in the trail and lay there till he
froze to death. After sixteen days had elapsed from King's departure, I became so
uneasy at the delay that I decided to wait no longer. I was aware that our troops
had been engaged in hostilities with the Spanish Utahs and Apaches, who range in
the North River valley, and became fearful that they (King's party) had been cut off
by these Indians ; I could imagine no other accident. Leaving the camp employed
with the baggage and in charge of Mr. Vincenthaler, I started down the river with
a small party, consisting of Godey (with his young nephew), Mr. Preuss and Saun-
ders. We carried our arms and provision for two or three days. In the camp the
messes had provisions for two or three meals, more or less, and about five pounds
of sugar to each man. Failing to meet King, my intention was to make the Red
River settlement, about twenty-five miles north of Taos, and send back the speediest
relief possible. My instructions to the camp were, that if they did not hear from
me within a stated time, they were to follow down the Del Norte.
On the second day after leaving camp we came upon a fresh trail of Indians, —
two lodges, with a considerable number of animals. This did not lessen our uneasi-
ness for our people. As their trail, when we met it, turned and went down the
river, we followed it. On the fifth day we surprised an Indian on the ice of the
river. He proved to be a Utah, son of a Grand River chief we had formerly known,
and behaved to us in a friendly manner. We encamped near them at night. By a
present of a rifle, my two blankets, and other promised rewards when we should get
in, I prevailed upon this Indian to go with us as a guide to the Red River settle-
ment, and take with him four of his horses, principally to carry our little baggage.
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 229
These were wretchedly poor, and could get along only in a very slow walk. On that
day (the sixth) we left the lodges late, and travelled only some six or seven miles.
About sunset we discovered a little smoke in a grove of timber off from the river,
and thinking perhaps it might be our express party on its return, we went to see.
This was the twenty-second day since they had left us, and the sixth since we had
left the camp. We fou id them, — three of them, — Creutzfeldt, Brackenridge, and
Williams, the most miserable objects I have ever seen. I did not recognize Creutz-
feldt's features when Brackenridge brought him up to me and mentioned his name.
They had been starving. King had starved to death a few days before. His remains
were some six or eight miles above, near the river. By aid of the horses, we carried
these three with us to Red River settlement, which we reached (Jan. 20) on the
tenth evening after leaving our camp in the mountains, having travelled through
snow and on foot one hundred and sixty miles. I look upon the anxiety which
induced me to set out from the camp as an inspiration. Had I remained there wait-
ing the party which had been sent in, every man of us would probably have per-
ished.
The morning after reaching the Red River town, Godey and myself rode on to
the Rio Hondo and Taos, in search of animals and supplies, and on the second
evening after that on which we had reached Red River, Godey had returned to that
place with about thirty animals, provisions, and four Mexicans, with which he set
out for the camp on the following morning. On the road he received eight or ten
others, which were turned over to him by the orders of Major Beale, the command-
ing officer of this northern district of New Mexico. I expect that Godey will reach
this place with the party on Wednesday evening, the 31st. From Major Beale I
received the offer of every aid in his power, and such actual assistance as he was
able to render. Some horses which he had just recovered from the Utahs were
loaned to me, and he supplied me from the commissary's department with provisions
which I could have had nowhere else. I find myself in the midst of friends. With
Carson is living Owens, and Maxwell is at his father-in-law's, doing a very prosper-
ous business as a merchant and contractor for the troops.
Taos, New Mexico, Feb, 6, 1849.
After a long delay, which had wearied me to the point of resolving to set out
again myself, tidings have at last reached me from my ill-fated party. Mr. Haler
came in last night, having, the night before, reached Red River settlement, with
some three or four others. Including Mr. King and Proue, we have lost eleven of
our party. Occurrences, after I left them, are briefly these, so far as they are within
Haler's knowledge. I say briefly, my dear Jessie, because now I am unwilling to
force myself to dwell upon particulars. I wish for a time to shut out these things
from my mind, to leave this country, and all thoughts and all things connected with
recent events, which have been so signally disastrous as absolutely to astonish me
with a persistence of misfortune, which no precaution has been adequate on my part
to avert.
You will remember that I had left the camp with occupation sufficient to employ
them for three or four days, after which they were to follow me down the river.
Within that time I had expected the relief from King, if it was to come at all.
They remained where I had left them seven days, and then started down the
river. Manuel — you will remember Manuel, the Cosumne Indian — gave way to a
230
xMARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
feeling of despair after they had travelled about two miles, begged Haler to shoot
him, and then turned and made his way back to the camp, intending to die there,
as he doubtless soon did. They followed our trail down the river, — twenty-two
men they were in all. About ten miles below the camp. Wise gave out, threw away
his gun and blanket, and a few hundred yards further fell over into the snow and
died. Two Indian boys, young men, countrymen of Manuel, were behind. They
rolled up Wise in his blanket and buried him in the snow on the river bank. No
more died that day ; none the next. Carver raved during the night, his imagina-
tion wholly occupied with images of many things which he fancied himself eating.
%
LEAVING THE WEAK TO DIE.
In the morning, he wandered off from the party, and probably soon died. They did
not see him again. Sorel on this day gave out and lay down to die. They built
him a fire, and Morin, who was in a dying condition, and snow-blind, remained.
These two did not probably last till the next morning. That evening, I think,
Hubbard killed a deer. They travelled on, getting here and there a grouse, but
probably nothing else, the snow having frightened off the game. Things were des-
perate, and brought Haler to the determination of breaking up the party, in order
to prevent them from living upon each other. He told them '' that he had done all
he could for them, that they had no other hope remaining than the expected relief,
and that their best plan was to scatter and make the best of their way in small
parties down the river. That, for his part, if he was to be eaten, he would, at all
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 23 1
events, be found travelling when he did die." They accordingly separated. With
Mr. Haler continued five others and the two Indian boys. Rohrer now became very
despondent ; Haler encouraged him by recalling to mind his family, and urged him
to hold out a little longer. On this day he fell behind, but promised to overtake
them at evening. Haler, Scott, Hubbard, and Martin agreed that if any one of them
should give out, the others were not to wait for him to die, but build a fire for him
and push on. At night Kern's mess encamped a few hundred yards from Haler's,
with the intention, according to Taplin, to remain where they were until the relief
should come, and in the meantime to live upon those who had died, and upon the
weaker ones as they should die. With the three Kerns were Cathcart, Andrews,
McKie, Stepperfeldt, and Taplin.
Ferguson and Beadle had remained together behind. In the evening Rohrer
■came up and remained with Kern's mess. Mr. Haler learnt afterwards from that
mess that Rohrer and Andrews wandered off the next day and died. They say
they saw their bodies. In the morning Haler's party continued on. After a few
hours Hubbard gave out. They built him a fire, gathered him some wood, and left
him, without, as Haler says, turning their heads to look at him, as they went off.
About two miles further, Scott — you remember Scott, who used to shoot birds for
you at the frontier — gave out. They did the same for him as for Hubbard, and
■continued on. In the afternoon the Indian boys went ahead, and before nightfall
met Godey with the relief. Haler heard and knew the guns which he fired for him
■at night, and starting early in the morning, soon met him. I hear that they all
cried together like children. Haler turned back with Godey, and went with him to
^here they had left Scott. He was still alive and was saved. Hubbard was dead,
— still warm. From the Kerns' mess they learned the death of Andrews and
Rohrer, and a little above met Ferguson, who told them that Beadle had died the
night before.
Godey continued on with a few New Mexicans and pack mules to bring down
the baggage from the camp. Haler, with Martin and Bacon, on foot, and bringing
Scott on horseback, have first arrived at the Red River settlement. Provisions,
and horses for them to ride, were left with the others, who preferred to rest on the
river until Godey came back. At the latest, they should all have reached Red
River settlement last night, and ought all to be here this evening. When Godey
arrives, I shall know from him all the circumstances sufficiently in detail to enable
me to understand clearly everything. But it will not be necessary to tell you any-
thing further. It has been sufficient pain for you to read what I have already
written.
When I think of you all, I feel a warm glow at my heart, which renovates it like
a good medicine, and I forget painful feelings in strong hope for the future. We
shall yet, dearest wife, enjoy quiet and happiness together — these are nearly one
and the same to me now. I make frequently pleasant pictures of the happy home
we are to have, and oftenest, and among the pleasantest of all, I see our library with
its bright fire in the rainy stormy days, and the large windows looking out upon the
sea in the bright weather. I have it all planned in my own mind. It is getting late
now. La Harpe says that there are two gods which are very dear to us, — Hope and
Sleep. My homage shall be equally divided between them ; both make the time
pass lightly until I see you, and so I go now to pay a willing tribute to the one with
my heart full of the other. Good night.
232 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
No longer ago than 1854 Colonel Thomas H. Benton, of national
reputation, and his son-in-law, John C. Fremont, whose explorations
from the Missouri River to the Pacific coast had made him known
world-wide, became enthusiastic over the project of building a rail-
road over the Rocky Mountains. Fremont's last two expeditions
were undertaken, at his own and Colonel Benton's expense, for the
purpose, mainly, of settling the question whether it would be practi-
cable to run cars over the Rocky Mountains in the winter, when
storms are terrific and snows deep.
It was necessary for Fremont to undertake his expeditions in win-
ter-time, in order to test the question satisfactorily. We need
scarcely say that the hardships and perils of such an enterprise were
many and great. Fremont and his men never learned more of cold
and hunger by experience than they did in that expedition. At one
time, as news from the explorers had not been received for several
weeks, the public feared that the whole party had perished. The
National Jjitelligcncer of April 12, 1854, said : —
*' It gives us great pleasure to insert the subjoined letter from
Colonel Fremont, not only because it contradicts the exaggerated
reports of deaths sustained by his party, and assures us of the in-
trepid explorer's own safety, after his two months' bold journey
through the mountain wilds in midwinter, but because his success
seems fully to have established the favorable nature of the central
route for a railroad, in winter as well as summer."
Bear in mind, reader, that our purpose is to show the marvel of
enterprise in the New West, which can be done well only by a clear
and distinct understanding of the condition of the country west of
the Missouri physically, as well as socially and morally, less than
forty years ago. Such experience as that of Fremont seems scarcely
possible to the tourist now, who travels from the Missouri River ta
San Francisco in a Pullman car in four days.
Before the discovery of gold in California, in 1848, few but
explorers, fur-traders, trappers, and hunters, ventured to cross the
Missouri River into the wilderness. The discovery of gold, however,,
on the Pacific Slope, created the wildest enthusiasm throughout the
land, and a tide of emigration to California set in. Hundreds and
thousands of ill-fated adventurers crossed the Missouri, to die by
savage violence or starvation on the *' Great Plains " or in the moun-
tains. The tragic end of individuals and companies who miserably
perished on their way to the "Golden Gate," less than forty years
ago, would fill volumes with tales more harrowing than fiction. The
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
233
known starvation or massacre of one company of emigrants did not
deter another from the hazardous undertaking. A continuous stream
of men, wild with the gold-mania, poured over the plains and through
the mountains, — some of them to success, but more to death.
Freighters called these baggage-wagons " prairie-schooners.'*
Oxen, mules, and horses were used to draw them, from two to ten
to each team. It was not unusual for oxen, horses, and mules to be
hitched to the same "schooner." Emigrants travelled in caravans as
much as possible, well armed, to protect themselves when savages
attacked them. Wild blasts, wilder Indians, and " Latter-Day
Saints " made the journey extremely perilous.
OVER THE PLAINS THEN.
The discovery of gold in Colorado, in 1858, created even greater
excitement throughout the country than did its discovery ten years
before in California. Emigration rolled towards the new Eldorado
with unexampled rapidity. A more motley tide of humanity never
set in, north, south, east, or west. The year 1859 will ever be memo-
rable for the number and miscellaneous character of travellers to
Pike's Peak. Old men and mere boys, educated and ignorant, saints
and sinners, philanthropists and robbers, professional and lay, — all
defied hunger, cold, nakedness, and Indians, in their red-hot enthu-
siasm for gold-digging. The " Great Plains " swarmed with all sorts
of animals and vehicles, conveying men, and some women, with goods
and chattels, to the gold region. It was not unusual for an ox, mule,
234
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
donkey, and even cow, to appear in the motley cavalcade, heavily
loaded with the property of its enthused proprietor. The illustration
is no fancy sketch : it represents what many men now living beheld
•on the Plains. It is claimed, even, that one party crossed the Plains,
carrying his outfit on a wheelbarrow ; and others drew hand-carts.
Many of the white-topped wagons bore amusing inscriptions, as
follows : on a wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen, moving at a snail's
pace, appeared in large letters, " Lightning Express " ; on another
LIGHTNING EXPRESS.
wagon, "Pike's Peak or Bust"; on another, "Root Hog or Die";
and so on ad infinitum.
Few imagined what sufferings they might experience in their new
adventure ; most of them had their only laugh in the early part of
their journey. The ox-team conveyed them to disappointment, hun-
ger, and death in a briefer period than they dreamed of. Miss Hill,
in her " Tales of Colorado Pioneers," has the following, which she
received from one Mrs. Barney : —
" I was in the first coach of the '■ Leavenworth and Pike's Peak
Express Company,' which arrived in Denver on the seventh day of
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE, 235
May, 1859. The supply wagons were sent on ahead, locating the
stations, and every twenty-five miles they would drop a tent, a stove,
and a cook. At that season of the year the twilight is short, so when
we drew up at the station for supper it was quite dark. When I
entered the tent I saw the most soul-sickening sight that my eyes
ever rested upon, and the flickering light of the candle added inten-
sity to the horror. . . . The poor man, from starvation, was reduced
to a living skeleton. He was in the last stages of exhaustion when
an Indian found him and brought him to the tent. After he was
refreshed with food and stimulants he told his sickening story.
"• Three brothers set out from Illinois in a one-horse cart for the
gold region. From Leavenworth they took the Smoky Hill route.
Guided by incorrect ideas of the distance, they were poorly prepared
for the hardships of the journey, and their provisions gave out before
they were half way. They killed their horse for food and loaded
their cart with it, taking turns in the harness of the slaughtered
animal. It was tedious, and their strength was rapidly going. When
the last piece of flesh was gone, they sat down in despair to die, for
they had wandered away from the trail in search of water, and had
no hope of being found by a human being. One sank faster than
the others, and when dying requested the surviving brothers to live
upon his flesh and try to get through. He died, and they com-
menced their cannibalistic feast — ate the body, and again saw star-
vation staring them in the face. Another died, which furnished food
to the remaining brother.
*' Mr. Williams, conductor of the Express, after hearing the story,
had the Indian pilot him to the spot, where he found the bones of
the one who died last, and buried them.
'' We took the miserable, famished creature in the coach to Denver.
His body regained health and strength, but his mind was gone. He
remained always an imbecile. The citizens of Denver made up a
purse and sent him to his friends in 'the States.' "
A story stranger than fiction has just been told us by a gentle-
man who reached Denyer early in the spring of 1859. With two
companions he drew a hand-cart, containing their effects, from
Leavenworth, Kan., to Denver, Col., a distance of six hundred miles.
On the way they crossed the route of a team from Texas, laden
with flour and other stores. This gentleman purchased a sack of
flour of the teamster, and transferred it to the hand-cart. On reach-
ing Denver, where some thirty men had wintered, he found a scarcity
of provision, and the Cherry Creek gold mania a delusion. There
236
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
was not a spoonful of flour in the camp ; and as the search for gold
had proved vain, there was a general desire among the men to escape
from their dilemma. Our informant was offered a "corner lot" for
one-half of his sack of flour, and two other lots in addition, for the
whole of it. He refused the offer, thinking that he might need it to
keep his own soul and body together. Neither he nor any one else
dreamed of the influx of people, in six weeks from that time, when
they came by the thousand ; otherwise he would have parted with the
CROSSING THE PLAINS WITH A HAND-CART.
flour. Had he sold it for the three *' lots," he would have realized,
within three or six months, from eight thousand to ten thousand
dollars for his sack of flour. ♦
It is not strange that many of the best class of gold-seekers started
homeward soon after reaching the gold country. Privations and
home-sickness forced their return. In addition, a large class of shift-
less characters, who supposed that nuggets of gold could be picked
up anywhere in the vicinity of the Rocky Mountains, were maddened
by disappointment, and they, too, stampeded. So that, for two or
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE,
237
three years, and longer, perhaps, the plains witnessed two large
streams of humanity, one going to, and the other returning from, the
gold country. The white-covered wagon that bore the inscription
" Pike's Peak or Bust " on its outward trip, returned with this inscrip-
tion under the former, "Busted by Thunder." Most of them declared
that Pike's Peak as a gold region was a hoax. One D. C. Oakes,
who had induced many men to go to Colorado by a pamphlet that he
published, setting forth the richness of the gold mines, came near
PERILS OF D. C. OAKES.
losing his life. He had been to the '' States," and was returning
with a saw-mill, when he met a large company of returning fortune-
seekers on the plains, who charged him with deceiving them, and
threatened to destroy his mill and take vengeance on himself. But
finally he was allowed to proceed, the exasperated stampeders con-
tenting themselves with hurling hard names at him. Mr. Oakes had
not proceeded far before he came upon a new-made grave, on which
the bleached shoulder-blade of a buffalo lay, bearing the following
inscription : —
238 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
" Here lies the body of
D, C, Oakes,
Killed for aiding the Pike's Peak hoax."
The party of disappointed gold-hunters who had just interviewed
him had buried him in effigy. Subsequent developments proved
that the gold-cry was not a hoax. There was plenty of gold, but
many of its seekers lacked the enterprise, perseverance, and strength
to find it.
CAPTURE OF "SPOTTED HORSE."
The Indians were a constant menace to the emigrants over the
plains from the outset ; and they continued their depredations, grow-
ing bolder and bolder, until their hostility culminated in the atrocities
of 1864. "Spotted Horse" was a noted chief, who led a band of
blood-thirsty Indians, causing a "reign of terror" in the valley of
the Platte. Houses and cabins were attacked by the savages, and
whole families, men, women, and children, murdered. For a distance
of two hundred miles and more. Spotted Horse swept over the
country with his painted warriors, burning, terrifying, robbing, and
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE, 239
murdering defenceless people. The government soldiers at Fort
Kearney were of no more use than so many bundles of straw in
checking these warlike demonstrations. The pioneers saw that
unless death was meted out to Spotted Horse and his band, starva-
tion and the tomahawk would exterminate them. So they moved in
the matter as pioneers will, and the result was that Major Downing,
with a part of the Colorado First Regiment, which had just re-
turned from New Mexico, where it had been to conquer the rebellion,
was ordered to take the field against the Indians. He immediately
marched to the camp of the enemy, near the American ranch, one
hundred and fifty miles from Denver, and pitched his tent a few miles
distant from it. Miss Hill says : —
"As he sat in his camp one morning viewing the country through
a field-glass, he saw a man dressed in citizen's clothes on the oppo-
site side of the river. He immediately detached ten or twelve men
to capture him, and if possible bring him to the camp alive ; for he
knew from his walk that he was an Indian, probably one of their
scouts on a tour of observation.
"■ When brought into camp, he proved to be none other than the
famous Spotted Horse.
"The Major surveyed him for awhile in meditative serenity ; then
offered the Indian, who stood in sullen silence, his life, if he would
surrender his band. This he refused to do.
"He then ordered his men to drive a stake and prepare to roast
the Indian alive.
"The chief gathered his coat about him, and sat contemplating
his funeral pyre with stoical indifference.
"When the fire was kindled the Major gave orders to bind him
to the stake, saying, * You have seen many a white man die this
horrible death, and now we propose to let you know how it is your-
self.'
"This unnerved him ; he pleaded for his life, and promised to lead
the soldiers to his camp. The terms were agreed upon, and in the
shortest possible time the command was moving, with Spotted Horse
strapped on a horse in advance.
"They camped that night in a little ravine, and the chief informed
them that his warriors were only a few miles ahead, up the canon that
they were approaching.
"About eleven o'clock at night the Major and his command stole
away, leaving the camp-fires burning to make the Indian scouts believe
that they were still there. Reaching the spot designated by Spotted
240
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Horse early in the morning, the order was given to halt and form in
line of battle.
*' At a given signal he opened fire. The Indians made a bold
resistance, but finally surrendered.
*' This was the first Indian battle in Colorado, and the result was,
forty killed and one hundred wounded, their village destroyed and
their chief a prisoner."
Then the Third Regiment was enlisted for a hundred days in a
campaign against the Indians. On the 29th of November Governor
PERILS BY INDIANS
Evans issued a proclamation of war against the Arapahoes, Chey-
ennes, Sioux, and all others who were raiding upon the settlers.
The battle of Sand Creek, led by Colonel Chivington, followed, in
which the savages were conquered. Colonel Chivington was charged
with unnecessary brutality by men who knew little about the affair,
because the Indians were generally slaughtered. But the Western
people, who understood the situation well, have not ceased to praise
Colonel Chivington and his heroic command for removing the cause
of their chief calamities. That battle put an end to the Indian hos-
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 241
tilities for fifteen years, and relieved a terror-stricken people as no
conciliatory policy could have done.
In September, 1883, the Pike's Peak Pioneers of '58 celebrated,
in Denver, the twenty-fifth anniversary of their arrival in the gold
country ; and, at the banquet, Colonel Chivington, by request, gave
an account of the Sand Creek battle, which we quote here, in justice
to a patriotic and fearless officer : —
" After many requests, I write this brief and hasty sketch of that
famous, or infamous, battle — famous, when looked upon by those
who know most about it ; infamous, when looked at by those who
know least of it. Years have fled away ; the smoke of battle has
lifted ; and time, the Great Revealer, has placed his seal upon this
and contemporary events. If anything can be justified by its effects,
then the noble, daring, sacrificing, heroic men, who left their lucra-
tive employments and callings, to brook the hardships, privations, and
dangers of a winter campaign on the plains, against the marauding,
thieving, and murdering Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians, must stand
justified. Pre-eminently so.
*' These men were not murderers of innocent, helpless women, as
some silly people believe. What are the exact facts in the premises .'*
On the 13th day of April, 1864, a herdsman, of Irvin, Jackman & Co.,
government freighters, came into district headquarters, and reported
that the Cheyennes and Arapahoes had driven off about sixty head
of their work-oxen and ten or twelve head of mules and horses from
the winter camp on Kiowa, some thirty miles south of Denver. The
district commander sent orders to Captain Sanborn, in command of
troops on the Platte, below Denver, to send out a detachment to
intercept the Indians where they would cross the river, and recover
the stolen stock, and return it to its owners ; but be careful, if
possible, to avoid a fight with the Indians The troops were sent
under command of Lieut. Clark Dunn, a careful and prudent officer.
The Indians were overtaken, as was expected, just as they were
crossing the river. Lieutenant Dunn crossed over to the side where
the Indians were, and engaged them in a parley or talk about the
stolen stock. While this was going on, Dunn discovered that the
Indians were running off the stock. A blinding snow-storm was in
progress ; and Dunn told the chiefs that they must stop running the
stock away, or he would be compelled to take it by force. This
incensed the Indian chief so much that he gave a signal, and the
Indians fired on the Lieutenant when in treaty under a flag of truce.
Of course, the troops rode to the rescue of their officers. The
242 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Indians outnumbered Dunn's forces four to one. Darkness had now
set in. Hence, the Indians escaped with their booty.
''From this time on, all spring, summer, and autumn, these Indians,
joined by others, were raiding the Platte and Arkansas river routes
of travel, and the out-settlements and stockmen's herds, stealing
horses, mules, and cattle ; robbing and burning houses and other
buildings, attacking trains loaded with merchandise for Denver mer-
chants and traders, killing the drivers and those in charge, carrying
off what they could, and burning the wagons and remaining contents ;
murdering and mutilating whole families, men, women, and children,
in a manner too shocking to write or speak off. All these long
months, and in the midst of general alarm, not only of those occu-
pying the outposts, but of the dwellers occupying the villages, the
men in the city of Denver feared for the worst. There were only
troops in the district sufficient to escort and protect the United
States mails, and garrison the posts and camps, and to send detach-
ments in pursuit of raiding bands of Indians."
After rehearsing the manner of raising the Third Regiment^
for a hundred days, and the hurried march to the scene of conflict.
Colonel Chivington continues : —
*' On the night of November 27, the command camped on the
Arkansas River, eight miles above Fort Lyon ; and the arrangement
of the campaign may be judged of when it is stated that, on the
morning of the 28th, the command broke camp, and marched into
Fort Lyon, before the garrison of the post was aware of its approach.
Here the command rested till dark, when — joined by two companies
of the First Cavalry, of Colorado, under command of Maj. Scott J.
Anthony — it marched for the camp of the hostiles, about forty miles
distant. About midnight, the guide reported himself lost, and said
that Jim Beckwith, on whom he had depended for the last part of the
route, was so blind from age and cold, that he was not willing to pro-
ceed further till daylight. Major Anthony had Jack Smith, a half-
breed Cheyenne, with his command, whose knowledge of the country
was brought into requisition, and the command moved on, as noise-
lessly as possible, until within eight or ten miles of the Indian camp,
when Jack told Colonel Chivington that any further advance would
be likely to result in the Indians taking flight and running away ;
saying : ' Wolfe, he howle ; Injun doge, he hear wolfe, and doge howle,
too. Injun, he hear doge and listen, — hear something, and run off.'
Colonel Chivington told Jack that he had not had an Indian to eat for
some time, and if he fooled him, and did not take him to the camp
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 243
of the hostiles, that he would have him, 'Jack,' for breakfast. The
march was resumed, and nothing more was heard of 'wolfe' and 'doge.'
At early dawn, Colonel Chivington and Shoup, who were one-half or
three-fourths of a mile in advance of the command, had the Indian
camp pointed out to them by Jack Smith, who was at once sent to
the rear. The column was halted, and two detachments were sent to
cut off the herds of ponies, which were on two opposite sides of the
camp, and probably each a mile out from camp. The officers in
charge of these detachments were strictly commanded not to permit
any firing on the Indians, unless they were first fired upon. The
herd of ponies farthest from us took the alarm first, and headed and
ran for camp. In cutting them off, the troops ran close into the
tepee of the head chief, and were fired upon, and one soldier and his
horse fell dead. This was the signal for a general fight, which it had
hoped might be avoided by cutting off these mounts, and then a talk
and terms. The whole command was ordered to advance and sup-
port the detachments, that were now under a heavy fire from the
Indians, who had formed in line just above the camp. Colonel
Chivington found the Indians too strong for his command to drive,
until he succeeded in getting two twelve-pound brass howitzers to
the front. The first shot from one of these broke the Indian lines,
and a running fight ensued, lasting till it was so dark that an Indian
could not be distinguished from a white man.
''There were many incidents on the field that would well bear
mention. I will recite one. While sitting on my horse, glass in hand,
about two o'clock p.m., I saw an officer fall from his horse. I gal-
loped up, and found that he had been wounded with an arrow, and
ordered two troopers near by to assist and protect him till the ambu-
lance came to take him to the hospital tent. One of the soldiers,
speaking excitedly, said : ' Look out, Colonel, the same squaw that
shot the Major will shoot you ! ' and before I could dismount, and
make my horse a breastwork, an arrow came whizcing past, and cut
the rim off my left ear, so that it ble 1 freely. At this, one of the
soldiers brought his carbine to an aim, saying : ' If that squaw shows
her head above the bank again, I will shoot the top off it.' His com-
mander expostulated with him, saying, ' I would not waste my pow-
der by killing a woman.' At this instant another arrow flew through
the air, and pierced the arm of the highly civilized soldier, about four
inches below the shoulder-joint. I had all my life some doubts about
instantaneous conversions, but here it was as clear cut as was ever
witnessed at an old-fashioned Methodist camp-meeting. Before, it
244 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
was the officer who was shot ; now, it was himself. Before, he would
not shoot a woman ; now, he fairly shrieked, ' Shoot the dirty, red
b h ! ' and the order was obeyed ; and the squaw was shot ; and I
approved it. If the fools in the East and elsewhere, who are still
shouting themselves hoarse, could only have turned loose upon them
for a little time a band of hostile Cheyennes, and I could witness the
scene, I would be more than compensated for all the mean things
they have said and are saying about me and the troops under my
command at Sand Creek.
"The number of Indians killed, as near as I could estimate from
the reports of company and battalion commanders, was from five
hundred to seven hundred and fifty. I am inclined to think the
latter number nearest correct. We captured a large number of
ponies, mules, and horses. From these I allowed the men of the
command, whose horses had died or given out on the march, to
choose another, and ordered the remainder of them to be turned
over to Capt. Dandow Mullen, Assistant Quartermaster of volun-
teers at Denver, which was done, and Captain Mullen sold them at
public auction and accounted for the proceeds in his returns to the
Quartermaster's department. We burned the tepees, or tents, de-
stroyed their provisions, turned over to the hospital the robes and
blankets we took for the benefit of our sick and wounded, of whom
we now had a large number.
"Was Sand Creek a massacre.'* If it was, we had massacres
almost without number during the late rebellion. That there may
have been some excesses committed on the field, no one will deny.
Was there ever a battle fought in which no excesses were committed }
We were on the ground, were 'wide awake and duly sober' ; there were
not ten minutes at a time for ten hours that we were not overlooking
the whole scene of strife ; and after nineteen years, less two and a
half months, we say unhesitatingly that it was remarkably free from
undue atrocities. I saw in a newspaper within a month that Gen.
S. R. Curtis, commanding the department, denied all responsibility
for the whole affair. Here is his last word by telegraph to the dis-
trict commander : ' Pursue everywhere and punish the Cheyennes
and Arapahoes ; pay no attention to district lines. No presents
must be made and no peace concluded without my order.' It has
been an open secret to the writer ever since the battle that the mis-
representation of this whole affair from the beginning was a combi-
nation consisting of one man who was disappointed of promotion, and
some others who were aspirants for office and wanted several con-
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE, 245
nected with the campaign out of their way. I heard a judge of com-
mon pleas in Ohio, a Friend Quaker, and colonel of an Ohio regi-
ment during the Rebellion, say only last week, when this subject was
•on the tapis, that he was expecting to be arrested pretty soon, and
when asked why, he said, ' I captured three Rebel soldiers who had
Fort Pillow blazoned on the front of their hats. I sent them to the
rear under guard of three soldiers. The soldiers returned to camp,
and I asked them what had become of the prisoners. They replied
that they had tried to escape and they had shot them, and I knew
^ery well that they had shot them because of their boast that they
had participated in the Fort Pillow affair, and did not arrest them
because I thought they did about half right.' Take the report
of the committee on the conduct of the war in the matter of General
Sherman's having ten thousand men slaughtered by the rebels only
just to show Pemberton, or some other rebel commander, that he
would fight. No man can afford to be tried by a star-chamber court.
'' But were not these Indians peaceable } Oh, yes ; peaceable !
Well, a few hundred of them have been peaceable for almost nineteen
years, and none of them have been so troublesome as they were
before Sand Creek. What are the facts } How about that treaty
that Governor John Evans did not make with them in the summer
of 1864.'^ He, with Major Lowe, Major Whiteley, two of his Indian
agents, and the usual corps of attaches under escort, went out on the
Kiowa to treat. When he got there they had gone a day's march
further out on the plains and would meet him there, and so on, day
after day they moved out as he approached, until, wearied out, and
suspicious of treachery, he returned without succeeding in his mission
of peace. He told them by message that he had presents for them ;
but it was not peace and presents they wanted, but war and plunder.
" What of the peaceableness of their attack on General Blunt's
advance guard north of Fort Larned, almost annihilating the advance
before succor could reach them } What of the dove-like peace of
their attack on the government train on Walnut Creek, east of Fort
Larned, under the guise of friendship, till the drivers and attaches of
the train were in their power, and by a signal struck down at once
every man, only a boy of thirteen years barely escaping, and he with
a loss of his scalp, taken to his ears, and he finally died }
"That was a very friendly act these Indians did when they run
the entire herd of stock at Fort Larned one Sunday morning after
they drew their rations for the succeeding week. This herd con-
.sisted of all the cavalry and artillery horses, all the quartermaster's
246 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
animals, and all the beef cattle belonging to the caravansary depart-
ments at the post. What of the trains captured from Walnut Creek
to Sand Creek on the Arkansas route, and from the Little Blue to
the Kiowa on the Platte route ? Of supplies and wagons burned and
carried off, and of the men killed ? What of the massacre of the
Hunyan family? Alas! what of the stock, articles of merchandise,
fine silk dresses, infants' and youths' apparel, the embroidered night-
gowns and chemises ? Aye, what of the scalps of white men, women,
and children, several of which they had not had time to dry and tan
since taken ? These, all these, and more, were taken from the belts
of dead warriors on the battle-field of Sand Creek, and from their
teepes which fell into our hands on the twenty-ninth day of Novem-
ber, 1864. What of that Indian blanket that was captured, fringed
with white women's scalps ? What says the sleeping dust of the two
hundred and eight men, women, and children, ranchers, emigrants,
herders, and soldiers, who lost their lives at the hands of these In-
dians ? Peaceable ! Now we are peaceably disposed, but decline
giving such testimonials of our peaceful proclivities ; and I say here,
as I said in my own town in the Quaker county of Clinton, State of
Ohio, in a speech one night last week, — I stand by Sand Creek."
Colonel Chivington ** stands by Sand Creek," and we stand by
him, as we think every faithful chronicler of history must do.
The hardships and sufferings of the pioneers in those days, though
less than thirty years ago, may be learned from one of the pioneer
women, — Mrs. Augusta Tabor. Miss Hill narrates the experience
of Mrs. Tabor as follows, as she heard it from Mrs. Tabor herself : —
'' My first acquaintance with Horace Austin Warner Tabor came
about in this way : my father, a stone contractor, took the train one
morning in August, 1853, for Boston, to hire stone-cutters. When
about sixty miles from home two young men entered the train, one
of them taking a seat by my father. In conversation it was devel-
oped that these men were stone-cutters and looking for work. My
father employed them. In two years from that time Mr. Tabor, who
was one of the men, asked my hand in marriage. Another two
years passed, and in January, 1857, we were married in the room
where we first met.
** On the 25th of February we left my home in Augusta, Me., for
our new one in Kansas. We made our way to St. Louis, which was
the terminus of the railroad, thence to Kansas City on a five-day
boat. At Kansas City we purchased a yoke of oxen, a wagon, a few
farming tools, some seed, took my trunks and started westward. My
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
247
trip was not very pleasant, for the wind blew disagreeably, as it always
does in Kansas.
** We arrived at our destination on the 19th of April at 11 a.m.
I shall never forget that morning. To add to the desolation of the
place, the wind took a new start. The cabin stood solitary and alone
upon an open prairie. It was built of black walnut logs, 12x16 feet ;
not a building, a stone, or stick in sight. We had brought two men
with us, and how we could all live in that little place was a question
I asked myself many times. The only furniture was a No, 7 cook
stove, a dilapidated trunk, and a rough bedstead made of poles, on
which was an old tick filled with prairie grass. I sat down upon the
I
MRS. TABOR'S CABIN.
trunk and cried ; I had not been deceived in coming to this place.
I knew perfectly well that the country was new, that there were no
saw-mills near, and no money in the territory. But I was homesick,
and could not conceal it from those about me.
*' Mr. Tabor and the two men unloaded the wagon while I tried to
clean up the cabin. I found a number of old New York T7'ibimcs in
the room, smoothed them out, made a paste of flour, and soon had
the black, ugly logs covered, putting the newspapers right side up,
that I might read them at my leisure, for I could see that reading
matter was likely to be very scarce. Having covered the walls, I
unpacked the boxes and made' up a decent bed. I took out my table-
linen and silver, for I had not left home without the usual outfit, and
248 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. ,
then began to prepare my first meal. I cannot say that it was very
inviting, but I did the best I could, and we were all blessed with good
appetites. The two men took rooms near by and boarded with us,
thus helping us to money to support the table. Mr. Tabor broke the
land, put in the seed, and began farming in good earnest, exchanging;
day's labor with the neighbors to save hiring help. In this way our
pioneer farm was started.
'' No rain fell that summer, so that when harvest came we had
nothing to gather. Mr. Tabor went to Fort Riley and worked at his
trade, while I remained at home with my babe, and made a little money
by raising chickens.
" Indians and snakes were then numeroij^s in Kansas, and I lived
in constant dread of both. I cannot tell which I feared the most.
The rattlesnakes crawled into my cabin to get into the shade, and
when I sat down it would be upon a three-legged stool with my feet
under me.
''The winter was warm and pleasant. When spring came we
tried farming once more. An abundant crop resulted, but there was
no market for it ; eggs were three cents per dozen, and shelled corn
twenty cents per bushel. I kept boarders and made some butter to
sell. In February, 1859, Mr. Tabor heard of Pike's Peak, through
some one of Green Russell's party who was returning, and at once:
decided to try his luck in the new Eldorado. I had my choice to
return to my parents in Maine or remain with my husband and cast in
my lot with him. After canvassing the subject with much reflection,
it was settled that I should remain, as the more practicable course to
be pursued. The two men decided to go along with us. Mr. Tabor
worked at the Fort through March and April.
"The fifth day of April we gathered together our scanty means,,
bought supplies for a few months, yoked our oxen and cows, mounted
our seats in the wagon, and left the town of Zeandale with the deter-
mination of returning in the fall, or as soon as we had made money
enough to pay for the one hundred and sixty acres of government
land, and buy a little stock.
''What I endured on this journey only the women who crossed
the plains in 1859 can realize. There was no station until we arrived
within eighty miles of Denver, via the Republican route ; no road
and a good part of the way no fuel.
" We were obliged to gather buffalo chips, sometimes travelling
miles to find enough to cook a meal with. This weary work fell to
the women, for the men had enough to do in taking care of the
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. " 249
teams, and in 'making' and 'breaking' the camp. The Indians
followed us all the time, and were continually begging and stealing.
" Every Sunday we rested, if rest it could be called. The men
went hunting, while I stayed to guard the camp, wash the soiled
linen, and cook for the following week. Quite frequently the Indians
gathered around my camp, so that I could do nothing all day. They
wallowed in the water-sources from which our supplies were obtained,
and were generally very filthy. My babe was teething and suffering
from fever and ague, so that he required constant attention day and
night. I was weak and feeble, having suffered all the time that I
lived in Kansas with ague. My weight was only ninety pounds.
"We arrived in Denver about the middle of June, and as our
cattle were footsore we were obliged to camp there until the first day
of July. Then we went up Clear Creek where the town of Golden
was being established. A miner came down from the mountains,
from whom we inquired the way to Gregory diggings. With the
information derived from him, Mr. Tabor concluded to go on a
prospecting tour. So, on the morning of the Fourth of July, the
men took a supply of provisions on their backs, with a few
blankets, and, leaving one of the party to keep me company,
pushed forward into the mountains, hopeful of success. They were
absent three weeks, and to me they were three very lonely, weari-
some weeks, although wagons were camped around and Golden
City was a half-mile away. A vast wilderness, whose silence was
broken only by the lowing of cattle, stretched out on every side.
Even to a pioneer woman, on whom the necessity of such experi-
ence was laid, the situation was one of indescribable isolation. On
the 26th of July we again loaded the wagon and started into the
mountains. The road was a mere trail ; every few rods we were
obliged to stop and widen it. Many times we unloaded the wagon,
and, by pushing it, helped the cattle up the hills. Going down hill
was so much easier, that it was often necessary to fasten a full-grown
pine tree to the back of the wagon for a hold-back or brake. Often
night overtook us where it was impossible to find a level place to
spread a blanket. Under such circumstances we drove stakes in the
ground, rolled a log against them, and lay with our feet against the
log. Sometimes the hill was so steep that we slept almost upright.
We were nearly three weeks cutting our way through Russell's Gulch
into Payne's Bar, now called Idaho Springs.
** Ours was the first wagon through, and I was the first white
woman there, if white I could be called, after camping out three
250 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
months. The men cut logs and laid them up four feet high, then
put the 7x9 tent on for a roof. Mr. Tabor went prospecting.
I opened a ' bakery,' made bread and pies to sell, gave meals, and
sold milk from the cows we had brought.
** Here one of our party, Mr. Maxey, had an attack of mountain
fever, and for four weeks he lay very ill at the door of our tent, in a
wagon bed, I acting as physician and nurse. A miner with a gun-
shot wound through his hand was also brought to my door for atten-
tion.
" With the first snow-storm came an old miner to our camp, who
told us dreadful stories of snow-slides, and advised Mr. Tabor to take
me out of the mountains immediately. Those who know anything of
the surroundings of Idaho will smile at the idea of a snow-slide there.
But we, in our ignorance of mountains, believed all the old miner
said, and left for Denver.
" I had been very successful with my bakery in that camp, making
enough to pay for the farm in Kansas and to keep us through the
winter.
" Arriving in Denver, we rented a room over a store. It was the
first roof I had slept under for six months. I took a few boarders,
and Mr. Tabor returned to his prospect, which he found had been
jumped by the miner who had advised us to leave. * Might was
right ' in those days, so he lost all his summer's work, and had to
sell the cow to buy the supplv for the new camp, which was up the
head-waters of the Arkansas.
** The 19th of February, i860, I was lifted from a bed of sickness
to a wagon, and we started for the new mining excitement. No woman
had yet been there.
" We were seven days going to where Manitou now stands. I made
biscuit with the water of the soda springs ; they were yellow, and
tasted so strongly of soda that even we, with our out-door appetites,
could not relish them.
" We lingered there one week, the men doing a little prospecting,
and working on a new road over the Ute Pass.
" We made such slow progress over this road that every evening
we could look back and see the smoke from the camp-fire of the pre-
vious evening. After two weeks of such wearying travel, we reached
South Park. I shall never forget my first vision of the park. The
sun was just setting. I can only describe it by saying it was one of
Colorado's sunsets. Those who have seen them know how glorious
they are. Those who have not cannot imagine anything so gor-
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 2^1
geously beautiful. The park looked like a cultivated field, with
rivulets coursing through, and herds of antelope in the distance.
We camped on the bank of a clear stream, and the men went fish-
ing. We had broiled trout that night for supper, and passed the
evening over a game of whist by the light of our camp-fire.
''The fourth day in the park we came late at night to Salt Creek.
Tried the water and found that we could not let the cattle drink it ;
neither could we drink it. We tied the oxen to the wagon and went
supperless to bed. The night was very cold, and a jack came to our
tent and stood in the hot embers until he burned his fetlocks off.
He stayed with us to the end of our trip, and carried me many miles
upon his back.
"We moved on the next day to fresh water, and camped on Trout
Creek. Knowing that a party of men had left Denver a few days
before we did, and feeling anxious to come up with them, the men
shouldered their rifles and started out in search of footprints, each
going in a different direction. The one who came upon the trail was
to fire off his gun as a signal to the others. All day long I listened
for the report of a gun. The men had not arrived when night's
shadows gathered around, and I felt desolate indeed. The little jack
came into the tent, and I bowed my head upon him and wept in lone-
liness of soul.
" The men had gone farther than they expected, and were some-
what bewildered, and only for the camp-fire that I kept blazing, they
could not have found their way back.
*' As they did not find the trail, we concluded to follow the way a
stick might fall. It fell pointing southwest, and we went in that
direction.
*' Finding what we thought a good fording place in the Arkansas
River, we decided to cross, as the road seemed better on the other side.
"The river was very rapid and full of bowlders, around which
clung cakes of ice. Our cattle, thin, weak, and tired, were numb
with cold, and halted in the middle of the river. The men plunged
into the cold stream, which was waist deep, tied ropes to their horns,
went upon the opposite shore, and endeavored to drag them over, but
with no success. They then unloaded the wagon, putting the goods
upon the ice, which was liable to break off and float away, unyoked
the oxen, dragged the wagon over, and carried the goods on their
shoulders. The faithful little jack swam the river with me on its
back. Upon consulting our watch we found that we had been six
hours crossing the Arkansas.
252 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
" We made a fire, dried our clothing on us, and nursed the cattle
all night, feeling that we must save them, for our provision was get-
ting low, and unless game came in from the valley, we should be
obliged to eat them.
" After camping in this place a week, we moved further up the
river, where we went to work in earnest. Mr. Tabor and Mr. Maxey
whip-sawed some lumber and made sluice-boxes, sawed riffles from a
log, put in a ditch from the creek, and commenced washing the bank
away. Cleaning the boxes up at night, we found fine gold in an
abundance of black sand. I worked hard every day, trying to sepa-
rate the gold from the iron sand, and at night would have only a few
pennyweights of the precious metal. For four weeks we worked
there ; our supplies were about gone, and we felt discouraged. It
had been one long year since we heard from the loved ones at home.
" One morning a man came to the camp, and said he was one of
the party that left Denver a few days in advance of us, and they had
found gold in paying quantities. He gave us explicit directions how
to reach the rich diggings. We followed his directions, and under-
took to cross the river where it looked shallow. When near the
opposite bank we came into a deep channel. Our wagon bed, with
myself and child in it, raised above the wheels and floated down the
stream. It was rapidly filling with water, when it occurred to me
to cling to the willows on the bank. I did so, and held with unnatural
strength until the men came to my rescue. We reached California
Gulch three months after we left Denver. The first thing after
camping was to have the faithful old oxen butchered that had brought
us all the way from Kansas, — yes, from the Missouri River, three
years before. We divided the beef with the miners, for they were
without provisions or ammunition.
" Before night they built me a cabin of green pine logs, without
floor, door, or window. The roof was covered with poles, bark, and
dirt, and the wagon was converted into table, side-board, and three-
legged stools. I entered this place happy that I once more had a
roof to cover my head, and at once commenced taking boarders, with
nothing to feed them except poor beef and dried apples.
** It was soon noised about that gold was struck in California
Gulch, and before many weeks there were ten thousand people there.
A mail and express was immediately decided upon, and I was
appointed postmistress.
"With my many duties the days passed quickly. I was called
upon to weigh all the gold taken from the upper part of the gulch>
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE, 253
as we were the only owners in that section of a pair of gold-scales.
The miners would clean up their boxes, get their gold weighed, and
go to town (where Leadville now stands), spree all night, and return
'dead broke ' in the morning to commence again.
*'Mr. Tabor was then working our mine, which was No. 12 above
discovery. We took that because it had a fall ; but it was a mistake,
for the gold was nearly all washed over the fall into the claim below,
from which eighty thousand dollars was taken out during the summer
of i860.
"I was very happy that summer, and joyfully anticipated a visit
to my mother and father in the fall.
'' On the 20th of September Mr. Tabor gave me one thousand
dollars in dust. I put my wardrobe — what there was of it — in a car-
pet-bag, and took passage with a mule train that was going to the Mis-
souri River. I was five weeks crossing, and cooked for my board.
'' With that thousand dollars I purchased one hundred and sixty
acres of land in Kansas, adjoining the tract we already owned. My
folks dressed me up, and in the spring I bought a pair of mules and
a wagon in St. Joe to return with, which took about all my money.
'' Mr. Tabor gave me one-fifth of what was made that summer,
when I left ; the other four thousand he sent to Iowa and bought
flour, and in the spring we opened a store in my cabin. He worked
in the mine during the day, while I attended to the store. Those
were days and years of self-sacrifice, hard labor, and rigid economy,
when the foundation of Mr. Tabor's immense wealth was laid. A
little less courage, fortitude, and perseverance would have turned
us back, and the golden opportunity to amass a fortune been lost
forever."
These hardships and perils are found no more in the New West.
Where Mrs. Tabor drank deepest of the cup of bitterness, there are
now thrifty and wealthy cities, with all the modern attractions of
schools, churches, art, and adornment. Over the ''Great Plains,"
where so many became the victims of starvation and the tomahawk,
a quarter of a century ago, the tourist rides in luxurious palace cars,
with none to molest or make afraid.
Even now many of the New England people think of the New
West as the place where "dug-outs," Indians, and buffalo predominate.
But these are things of the past. We do not affirm that so-called
"dug-outs" cannot be found anywhere in the New West; for that
would not be true. But we affirm that where they were common
twenty-five and thirty years ago, they exist now only in ruins. Buf-
254
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
falo are unknown to-day in the larger part of the New West. They
have become almost extinct. And while Indians make occasional
raids upon ranches and white settlements, in some parts of the West,
that portion of tl^e New West of which we have been speaking is not
troubled by their presence. A New England lady went to Colorado
to reside in 1877. At the end of four years she returned, on a visit,
with her husband, and one day they were in the city of Boston,
where they met on the street several Western Indians, whom a show-
man was exhibiting there. Turning to her husband, the lady re-
CROSSING THE PLAINS NOW.
marked, "■ Those are the first Indians I have seen since I left Massa-
chusetts four years ago."
Fremont describes a herd of buffalo which he saw during one of
his exploring expeditions, so large as to cover the country as far as
he could see. By count he estimated that there were eleven thotisand
of them within a certain compass his eye took in ; and this was only
a part of the herd.
When the Union Pacific Railroad first went into operation, a train
of cars was stopped quite a while by a herd of buffalo crossing the
track. Colonel Dodge, in his *' Plains of the Great West," speaks as
follows of the buffalo : —
" Forty years ago the buffalo ranged from the plains of Texas to
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
255
beyond the British line ; from the Missouri and upper Mississippi to
the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
"In 1872, some enemy of the buffalo discovered that their hides
could be sold in the market for a goodly sum. By wagon, on horse-
back, and afoot, the pelt hunters poured in, and soon the unfortunate
buffalo was without a moment's peace or rest. Though hundreds of
thousands of skins were sent to market, they scarcely indicated the
slaughter. From want of skill in shooting, and want of knowledge
in preserving the hides of those slain, on the part of these green
HERD OF BUFFALO STOPPING THE TRAIN.
hunters, one hide sent to market represented three, four, or even five
dead buffalo. The hunter's object is not only to kill, but to avoid
frightening the living. Keeping the wind, peeping over hills, crawl-
ing like a snake along the bottom of a ravine, he may approach un-
suspected to within thirty or forty feet of the nearest. The game is
so near that but one shot is necessary for each life. Hiding his every
movement, the heavy rifle is brought to bear, and a bullet is sent into
the heart of the nearest buffalo. The animal plunges forward, walks
a few steps, and stops, with blood streaming from his nostrils. The
other buffalo, startled at the report, rush together, but, neither see
256 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
ing nor smelling danger, stare in uneasy wonder. Attracted by the
blood, they collect about the wounded buffalo. Again and again the
rifle cracks. Buffalo after buffaio bleeds, totters, and falls. The sur-
vivors stare in imbecile amazement.
" I have myself counted one hundred and twelve carcasses inside
of a semi-circle of two hundred yards radius, all of which were killed
by one man from the same spot, and in less than three-quarters of an
hour. The buffalo melted away like snow before a summer's sun.
Congress talked of interfering, but only talked. Winter and sum-
mer, in season and out of season, the slaughter went on. In 1871-
72, there was apparently no limit to the number of buffalo.
"As the game became scarcer, more attention was paid to all
details, and in 1874, one hundred skins, delivered in the market,
represented one hundred and twenty-five dead buffalo.
"To avoid overestimating, I have, in every case, taken the lowest
figures, and the result is as follows : —
Killed by the Indians in the years 1872, 1873, and 1874 1,215,000
Killed by the Whites in the years 1872, 1873, and 1874 3*158,730
Total 4,373,730
Making the enormous, almost incredible number, of nearly four and
a half millions of buffalo killed in the short space of three years.
Nor is this all. No account has been taken of the immense number
of buffalo killed by hunters who come into the range from New Mex-
ico, Colorado, Texas, and the Indian Territory ; of the numbers
killed by the Utes, Bannocks, and other mountain tribes, in their fall
hunt on the plains. Nothing has been said of the numbers sent from
the Indian Territory, by other railroads than the Atchison, Topeka
& Santa Fe, to St. Louis, Memphis, and elsewhere ; of the immense
number of robes which go to California, Montana, Idaho, and the
Great West ; nor of the still greater numbers taken each year from
the territory of the United States by the Hudson Bay Company.
All of these will add another million to the already almost incredible
mortuary list of the nearly extinct buffalo."
On a former page we spoke of a stage line opened from Leaven-
worth, Kansas, to Pike's Peak, in May, 1859. ^^ ^^^4 the Indians
committed such depredations that the stage line was discontinued.
Not only were wagon trains attacked by the savages, but stages were
attacked also. Many wagon trains, containing supplies and machinery
for traders and settlers, were captured and burned on the plains. Farm-
houses and stage stations shared the same fate. Some stages were
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
257
captured and passengers massacred. Colonel Chivington's statement,
already quoted, did not exaggerate the facts.
And this was little more than twenty years ago !
Even as recent as 1879, the author of "Camps in the Rockies"
recorded an incident that shows how generally the perils from Indians
pervaded the Rocky Mountain region. He says : " I visited the spot
on two different occasions. The first time (in 1879) ^ reached the
STAGE ATTACKED BY INDIANS.
few scattered log-cabins, nestling under the beetling brows of a gorge,
intersecting a vast upland plateau some six thousand or seven thou-
sand feet above the sea ; the inhabitants were in the throes of an Indian
scare ; the Utes had * broken out ' one hundred and fifty miles south,
had massacred a lot of troops that had been sent to subdue them, and
were now supposed to be on the war-path northwards, ready to do as
a kindred tribe had done a year or two before ; i.e., to sweep the whole
country and butcher the solitary white settlers. I happened to strike
258 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
the settlement a day or two after the first rumor of the Ute outbreak
had reached it. Riding a few miles ahead of our men, who followed
with the pack animals, I reached the cabin some hours before them.
The men of the settlement were all away attending to a distant cattle-
drive ; they had left before the first alarm, and were not expected
back for some days yet. The women — there were some eight or
nine families — had, on receipt of the first warning, held a council of
war, in which it was decided to retire to a small underground ' fort *
— cellar would describe it better — connected by a subterranean
passage with the largest log-cabin of the settlement. It was hastily
provisioned ; a woman who was in childbed brought hither, and every-
body ready to repair to this last refuge at the first approach of the
dreaded foe. My looks, as I rode up to the first shanty, I suppose,
were not very reassuring. Long absence in the wilds of the moun-
tains had reduced my dress to the last extremity. The skin and veni-
son of a bighorn I had killed that morning were slung over my saddle,
and festooned old Boreas's flanks, while my hands were still red with
the blood of my game, as I had passed no water since my morning's
kill. Altogether I must have looked, astride of my pony, who was
likewise bespattered by blood, a somewhat uncanny character. Not
having seen a white man for some time past, I was unaware of the
Indian news, and hence was quite unprepared for the shout, ' Halt ! '
that stopped me a few yards from a fence surrounding the first log-
cabin. On looking at the place from whence issued the voice, I
espied a huge needle-rifle resting on the top bar of the fence. Its
business end was pointed at me with unpleasant steadiness, while at
the butt end I descried a diminutive bit of humanity in the shape of
a boy of eleven or twelve.
" * Say, stranger, what the are you, anyhow } Be you a
tarnal red-skin half-breed, or a white man } ' demanded the miniature
sentry, who, on the lookout for Indians, wanted to make sure ere he
let me pass. My laughing answer was followed by his letting down
the hammer of his rifle, and standing up under the shadow of his huge
old arm, at least a foot and a half taller than himself, disclosing to
me a bright-eyed youngster of frontier breed.
"*I am the boss of this yer camp,' he replied to my query, and
taking from his trouser-pocket a roll of plug, he made a formidable
bite at it. I had arranged to wait for my men at the settlement, so
dismounting aijd tying up my horse, I followed his indication to go
into the house, 'where mam oughter (ought to be) cooking dinner.'
" This latter personage, busy with her stove, seemed somewhat
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 259
taken aback when I stalked into the cabin. However, she seemed
prepared for squalls ; a well-filled cartridge-belt girthed her waist, a
long six-shooter in its sheath being attached to it, while a Winchester
rifle was leaning against the stove ready for immediate action. In
ten minutes the loquacious Western lady had informed me of the
state of things, — had told me in what a perpetual state of fright they
had been the last two days ; how every soul in the settlement retired
every evening to their underground 'fort' ; and how they longed to
have their husbands and sons back again. She seemed delighted to
hear that my party would presently follow, and that we had seen no
signs of hostile Indians further north. After partaking of dinner,
and the boy-sentry being relieved by a neighbor's daughter, I made
the round of the cottages under the guidance of the boy-sentry, who
turned out to be a very wide-awake little chap, a genuine Western-
raised child, more of a man than many a swaggering lout double his
age further east, his astonishing flow of bad language and the con-
stant application to his plug being the only drawbacks to a more
intimate acquaintance with him.
''I visited the cellar ' fort,' and comforted the sick woman with the
news of the reinforcements the settlement had received. Some twelve
feet square, with loop-holes where the walls, only seven feet high,
joined the earthwork roof, it seemed a safe enough place, however
insufficient in its dimensions, to hold twelve or fifteen human beings.
The narrow passage, sloping upwards, some four or five yards long
and only four feet high, connecting this cellar-like excavation with
the body of the log shanty, was so arranged that it could be filled up
with earth at a moment's notice, while the heavy pile of earth that
covered the rafter roof, raising it slightly over the ground, made it
difficult, if not impossible, for the Indians to fire the structure.
" My men arriving in due time, we pitched camp close to it, and
remained there for two days, giving our worn-out cattle a very neces-
sary rest. A part of the male contingent of the settlement returned
before we left, and, as was not unnatural, felt very grateful to us for
our presence."
Such an occurrence now is as improbable in Colorado as it is in
Massachusetts. This fact alone shows the marvel of growth and
improvement better than description.
The marvellous enterprise and growth of the New West is strik-
ingly illustrated by the methods adopted to carry the mails. Gold
was discovered in California in 1848, and in less than three years
from that time there were one hundred and fifty thousand men in
26o
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
San Francisco. They represented nearly the whole world ; for they
came from every quarter of the habitable globe, leaving loved ones
behind.
To meet the necessities of so large a population, the mails became
ponderous. They were conveyed by water from New York to San
Francisco, each passage consuming from three to four weeks. Such
delay was very trying to the feelings of those who were anxious to
hear from friends at home, and extremely embarrassing to business
SNOW SKATES.
men. Yet, for ten years, all were forced to adapt themselves to these
unfavorable circumstances.
The settlers in the rich valleys at the eastern base of the high
Sierras of California were even worse off. Four or five months in
the year no mails could reach them, on account of the depth of the
snow. Fearless men attempted to scale the snow-crowned summits,
again and again, to carry the mails to these inland-bound people, but
as often sacrificed life to their temerity. It was trying enough to
cross those mountains in summer time ; but, in the winter, when
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 26 1
snow-storms raged almost daily, and the snow was often from fifteen
to twenty feet deep, it was extremely perilous to make the attempt.
A Norwegian, however, by the name of John A. Thompson, pro-
posed to carry the mail to these people through the winter, on snow-
skates. His proposition was received with much incredulity at first,
but he soon proved that he was in earnest and meant business. He
had been trained from boyhood, in his native land, to the use of
snow-skates.
The reader will observe that the sno'W-skate is entirely different
from the snow-s/ioe. The former is designed for skating upon hard
snow, by which mode of travel, an expert, like Thompson, may ac-
quire a speed not inferior to that in the skating-rink or on a lake
of ice. The latter (the snow-shoe) is designed for walking on loose
snow, in a level country, — a very slow process of locomotion. It is
stepping instead of sliding.
In 1854, Mr. Thompson made a bargain with T. J. Matteson, of
Murphey's Camp, Calaveras County, to continue postal service
through the winter, on wages of two hundred dollars a month, no
matter if the snow was twenty feet deep. From that time the settle-
ment of which we are speaking enjoyed postal facilities in winter as
well as summer ; for Thompson made a success of his enterprise.
He carried a pole in his hand, which served as a brake on down
grades, and a propeller up hill. On the whole, this method of carry-
ing the mail was pleasurable as well as novel, contrasted with the
more perilous method by horse and sleigh. In Sierra County, Cali-
fornia, young people skate on snow instead of ice, on moonlight
evenings, for pleasure and recreation. The sport is charged with
excitement and fun. Young ladies challenge young men to a race
of ten or fifteen miles on the snow-skate. That distance is readily
accomplished in a winter evening.
No attempt was made to carry the mail overland to California
until October, 1858, when the first mail across the continent reached
San Francisco, Oct. 10. But in i860. Majors, Russell & Co., of
Leavenworth, Kan., established the famous ''Pony Express." This
was a plan to carry the mail on horseback at a rapid speed, changing
horses at suitable distances, and drivers every fifty or seventy-five
miles. The great object was to get letters through sooner. The
first overland mail in 1858, was twenty-three days going through;
and this was but little gain over the carriage by sea. The mail must
be carried from the Atlantic to the Pacific in half that time, to answer
the demands of business.
262
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
On April 3, i860, the ''Pony Express" left St. Joseph, Mo., and
San Francisco simultaneously, and carried the mail through in ten
days. The second trip consumed fourteen days ; the third, nine
days ; the fourth, ten days ; the fifth, nine days ; and the sixth,, nine ;
and this came to be about the average time consumed in conveying
PONY EXPRESS STATION.
the mail overland — a valuable saving of time to business men. The
actual distance from St. Joseph to San Francisco, by the Pony Ex-
press route, was one thousand nine hundred and ninety-six miles.
The best of horses and the bravest of men were required for this
service. For the breakneck speed required was too much for the
stuff ordinary animals were made of, and the attacks of Indians and
robbers demanded carriers who would fight or die. The sacrifice of
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE,
263
horse flesh and human lives was large. Tales of hardships and perils,
stranger than fiction, could be written of this ''Pony Express" enter-
prise. All weathers, through storm and sunshine, summer's heat
and winter's cold, whether peace reigned or savages were on the war-
path, by day and by night, over prairie and mountain, up hill and down,
the mail-carrier must pursue his perilous way alone. A horse bridled
and saddled awaited his coming at each station, and a fresh rider at
stated intervals. No time should be lost. The mail must keep mov-
ing. As soon as one rider dashed up to his last station for rest,
another, already
mounted upon
his fresh steed,
seized the mail,
and putting
spurs to his
horse, was soon
out of sight.
The Pony
Express was a
genuine Yankee
invention ; and
its remarkable
success, in spite
of the tremen-
dous difficulties,
caused the Uni-
ted States gov-
ernment to es-
poNY EXPRESS IN MOUNTAIN STORM, tablish an over-
land mail route.
This fact, together with the construction of the telegraph line, in 1862,
caused the discontinuance of the Pony Express, — one of the most
novel and exciting methods of doing business the world has ever
known. Nor should it be forgotten that scarcely twenty-five years have
elapsed since our national government attempted to carry the mail
overland to California, and telegraphic connection between the ex-
tremes of the East and West was established.
The cut on p. 264 is an exact illustration of the first express line of
Fargo and Wells over the Rocky Mountains. It was thought to be
a remarkable triumph over difficulties at that time, and no one
expected that the method would ever be superseded by anything
264
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
better. Yet a decade had scarcely passed away before the comforta-
ble rail-car was rushing through these mountains on its way to the
Pacific coast.
The growth of business, from the discovery of gold in Colorado,
was surprising, even before the completion of the railroad to Cali-
fornia. Mr. Crofutt furnishes figures from the books of freighting
FARGO AND WELLS EXPRESS.
firms in Atchison, Kan., and he says: "In 1865 this place was
the principal point on the Missouri River, from which freight was
forwarded to the Great West, including Colorado, Utah, Montana,
etc. There were loaded at this place 4,480 wagons, drawn by 7,310
mules, and 29,720 oxen. To control and drive these trains, an army
of 5,610 men was employed. The freight taken by these trains
amounted to 27,000 tons. Add to these authenticated accounts the
estimated business of the other shipping points, and the amount is
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
265
somewhat astounding. Competent authority estimated the amount
of freights shipped during that season from Kansas City, Leaven-
worth, St. Joe, Omaha, and Plattsmouth, as being fully equal, if not
[ilipiiVlllllllllllllllPIIIlim^
more than was shipped from Atchison, with a corresponding num-
ber of men, wagons, mules, and oxen. Assuming these estimates ta
be correct, we have this result: During 1865, there were employed
in this business 8,960 wagons, 14,620 mules, 59,440 cattle, and 11,220
266 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
men, who moved to its destination 54,000 tons of freight. To accom-
plish this, the enormous sum of $7,289,300 was invested in teams and
wagons alone."
Along the south bank of the Platte River, emigrant trains, with
their white-covered wagons, together with immense freight-trains,
rolled in almost one unbroken line. Sometimes these trains ex-
tended without a break as far as the eye could see, presenting a
very novel and inspiring scene.
Many of the teams were a novel spectacle, on account of their
length and the great loads carried. Mining tools and machinery and
agricultural implements were all conveyed in this manner over the
plains, before the railroad was constructed. We think, however, that
no team was ever seen along the Platte so long and so heavily freighted
as a mule team which carried boilers and machinery weighing fifty-
four thousand pounds, from Elko to White Pine, in 1869. The illus-
tration (p. 265) furnishes a good view of its magnitude.
Long since the emigrant trains disappeared from the south bank
of the Platte, and the mule was exchanged for the iron horse. The
railroad runs along the north bank of the river instead of the south,
which is essentially forsaken.
UNION PACIFIC RAILWAY.
The construction of the Union Pacific Railroad across the conti-
nent was the greatest marvel of our age. The consummation of the
enterprise settled the high destiny of the New West. From that
moment old things began to pass away, and all things began to be
new. Progress was wonderful ; and now it sweeps onward more
grandly than ever.
The precipitation of the war of the Rebellion, in 1861, turned the
attention of Congress to a railroad across the continent. California
was so widely separated from the other States of the Union, that
Mexico, or some foreign power, might readily gain possession of it.
It was well known to some of our public men that other powers were
looking wistfully to our wealth on the Pacific coast. Under the im-
pulse of this new development. Congress, in 1862, adopted measures
for the construction of the Union Pacific Railway, and made July i,
1876 (the nation's centennial year), the utmost limit of its completion.
The first contract for the construction of the road was made in
August, 1863, but months were consumed in harmonizing conflicting
interests connected with the location of the road, so that ground was
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
26-/
not broken until the fifth clay of November, 1865. The building of
the road commenced at a point on the Missouri River, near Omaha,
and at the close of January, 1866, forty miles of road had been con-
structed.
Some enthusiastic friends of the road predicted, at the ceremony
of breaking ground, Nov. 5, 1865, that the road would be completed
in five years; and their prediction was recorded as the prophecy of
268 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
enthusiasts. The incredulous smiled, and opponents declared the
prediction absurd. General Sherman was reported to have said, be-
fore work on the road commenced : " I should be unwilling to buy a
ticket over it for my grandchildren." Five years thereafter he himself
rode over it.
The road was completed in three years, six mo7iths, and ten days.
Two hundred and sixty-five miles were built in 1866; two hundred
and eighty-five in 1867; and the remainder finished May 10, 1869.
Work on the road was commenced at both ends, and the two build-
ing parties met at Promontory Point, Utah Territory, on May 10,
1869, one thousand and eighty-four miles from Omaha, and eight
hundred and thirty miles from San Francisco. Promontory Point is
four thousand nine hundred and five feet above the sea.
That was a great day for our country and the world — driving
THE LAST SPIKE. A large concourse of people assembled, represent-
ing nearly every State of the Union, together with several foreign
countries. They were largely public men, — men who fully appreci-
ated the greatness and value of the work, — the completion of one
thousand seven hundred and seventy-four miles of railway in one
continuous line. The ceremony of laying the last rail, and connect-
ing the two divisions was assigned to take place at twelve o'clock,
noon. Mr. Crofutt says : —
" To give effect to the proceedings, arrangements had been made
by which the large cities of the Union should be notified of the exact
minute and second when the road should be finished. Telegraphic
communications were organized with the principal cities of the East
and West, and at the designated hour the lines were put in connec-
tion, and all other business suspended. In San Francisco the wires
were connected with the fire-alarm in the tower, where the ponder-
ous bell could spread the news over the city the instant the event
occurred. Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Cincinnati,
and Chicago were waiting for the moment to arrive when the chained
lightning should be loosed, carrying the news of a great civil victor}'
over the length and breadth of the land.
*' The hour and minute designated arrived, and Leland Stanford,
president, assisted by other officers of the Central Pacific, came for-
ward ; T. C. Durant, vice-president of the Union Pacific, assisted by
General Dodge and others of the same company, met them at the
end of the rail, where they reverently paused, while Rev. Dr. Todd,
of Massachusetts, invoked the divine blessing. Then the last tie, a
beautiful piece of workmanship, of California laurel, with silver plates
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE,
269
on which were suitable inscriptions, was put in place, and the last
connecting rails were laid by parties from each company. The last
spikes were then presented, one of gold from California, one of silver
from Nevada, and one of gold, silver, and iron from Arizona. Presi-
dent Stanford then took the hammer, made of solid silver, — and to
the handle of which were attached the telegraph wires, — and with
the first tap on the head of the gold spike at twelve, noon, the news
of the event was flashed over the continent. Speeches were made
as each spike was driven, and when all was completed, cheer after
cheer rent the air from the enthusiastic assemblage.
"Then the * Jupiter,' a locomotive of the Central Pacific R.R. Co.,
and locomotive No. 1 16, of the Union Pacific R.R. Co., approached from
each way, meeting on the dividing line, where they rubbed their brown
noses together, while shak-
ing hands, as illustrated on
preceding page."
The progress since that
day is strikingly represent-
ed by contrasting the first
and last depot of the Cen-
tral Pacific Railroad. The
first office of the railroad
in Sacramento was a good
match for their first depot.
We can furnish a correct
illustration of their first
office, but not of their first
depot.
The reader can readily
imagine what the first
depot must have been to
match the above. The office was built in one afternoon, and cost
$150. Probably the expense of the first depot was not whittled
down quite so fine as that ; but its appearance would excite a smile
now in contrast with the last depot, which a writer describes as
follows : —
"■ It is situated about midway between the bridge over the Sacra-
mento River and the company's shops, fronts north, on ground filled
in and specially prepared for that purpose. The main building is
four hundred and sixteen feet long, and seventy feet six inches wide,
two story. The front has four large arches in the centre, and eight
FIRST OFFICE,
270
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
smaller ones on each side. Three tracks run through the buildings
and a platform twenty-two feet wide. In the rear is an annex, one
hundred and sixty feet long, and thirty-five feet wide, one story, in
which is a dining-room, forty by fifty-five feet, fourteen feet high ;
two waiting-rooms, twenty-six by thirty-five feet. On the first floor
are ticket, sleeping-car, and telegraph offices, lunch-counter and bag-
gage-room, news-room, etc. The second story is occupied by the
offices of the Sacramento Valley Railroad, superintendent of division
of the Central Pacific, train despatchers, conductors, rooms for storage,,
stationery, etc."
CENTRAL PACIFIC DEPOT.
The above is an excellent illustration of the spacious and costly
depot.
We spoke of the commencement of the work near Omaha, Neb.
Few persons appreciate the magnitude of the labor in such an enter-
prise. There was not a railroad within one hundred and fifty miles
of Omaha when the ground was broken. Much of the material used
in building the road was purchased at the East, and was transported
by freight-teams over this one hundred and fifty miles ; and laborers
with their baggage were carried in the same w^ay. The engine of
seventy horse-power, which the company must have to drive their
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
271
works at Omaha, was carried in wagons from Des Moines, Iowa.
There was great labor and expense involved in this transportation.
Then there was no timber suitable for railroad purposes west of
Omaha for five hundred miles. Indeed, there was little east of
Omaha within five hundred miles. So that ties were purchased in
Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York, and shipped to Omaha, —
one hundred and fifty miles of the distance. — in wagons. Each tic,
-delivered at Omaha, at that time, cost the company ^2.50.
INDIANS' FIRST VIEW OF THE CARS.
The construction of the trans-continental railway proved a remark-
able civilizer. Nothing did so much to put an end to Indian wars,
and break up organized robbery throughout the New West, as con-
necting the East with the Pacific coast by rail. San Francisco was
a month distant from New York by water, and two months by land ;
but now the two cities are only one week apart. Mails that carried
to and brought from friends the news monthly, now accomplish the
errand weekly. The hardships and perils of an overland journey to
2/2 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
the Pacific are exchanged for the ease and comfort of Pullman cars,
which combine the accommodations of home and hotel quite largely.
Evidently, savage tribes regarded the invasion of the locomotive
with its train of cars, as the daring assault of a foe more mysterious
and powerful than any which had hitherto challenged their bravery.
The shrill, piercing whistle of the engine, pouring a dense, black
volume of smoke from its chimney, and the thunder of the train,
played upon their superstitious souls, to fill them with alarm and
apprehension. It seemed to them that, for some unknown reason,
the Great Spirit had resolved to destroy their hunting-grounds and
homes in the wilderness. The locomotive was to them a monster
^^ fire-wagon,'' and the train of cars, ^^ heap wagon, no hoss." The
whole thing was mysterious and wonderful to them. They could not
comprehend the strange spectacle. At first they viewed the cars
from the hill-tops at a distance, not daring to come within cannon-
range of them.
In time the redskins grew bolder, and, it is claimed, attacked a
"fire-wagon," for the purpose of capturing it; but they were so
seriously discomfited that they concluded '^ fire-zvagon bad medicifie!'
Mr. Hayes, in his ''New Colorado, etc.," says: "The graders and
track-layers often had to fight their way, and there is a tradition
current of an attempt to stop an express train. It is understood that
a lariat was stretched across the track, breast high, and held by some
thirty braves on each side ; but, says the narrator : ' when the engi-
neer fust see it, he didn't know what on airth wuz the matter ; but in
a minute more he bust out laughin', and he ketched hold of that
throttle, an' he opened her out ; an' he struck that there lariat agoin'
about forty mile an hour, an' he jest piled them braves up everlastin'
permiscuous, yoit bet .^ ' "
The famous war-chief Mi-ra-ha, of Arizona, hearing of the mighty
" fire-wagons," gathered a party of Apache Mohaves, and went on a
journey of several hundred miles to see the " terrible " machine.
There are many interesting facts and incidents connected with the
building of the Union Pacific Railroad worthy of a record here. The
whole cost of the road from Omaha to the Pacific coast is estimated
to be ^186,498,900. It is not claimed that these figures are exact, but
they express the approximate cost of the work. There were used in
the construction of the road about 900,000 tons of iron rails, 1,700,000
fish-plates, 6,800,000 bolts, 6,1 £6,375 cross-ties, and 23,505,500 spikes.
Four miles west of Promontory Point is a sign-board, on which is
inscribed, —
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 2/3
"TEN MILES OF TRACK IN ONE DAY."
Ten miles further west is another board bearing the same inscription,
and the explanation to this, — the track between those two sign-boards
was laid in one day, — more track than was ever laid in a day before
or since. The cause of this extra effort was the rivalry created be-
tween the Central working-gang west of Promontory and the Union
working-force east of that point. The Central gang boasted that
they could lay more track in a day than the Union. The Union track-
layers accepted the challenge, and laid six miles in one day. Then
the Central workmen laid seven, to which the Union men responded
by laying seven and a half miles. Then the Central gang announced
that they would lay ten miles of track in one day, which the officers
of the Union declared could not be done, Vice-President Durant
offering to bet $10,000 that it could not be done. The Central men
proposed to establish ,their claim on the twenty-ninth day of April,
when there was only fourteen miles of track to be laid, to connect
with the Union at Promontory Point. Every necessary arrangement
was made, and on the appointed day, in the presence of the officers
of the road and a committee from the Union, the work was accom-
plished.
Mr. Crofutt describes the manner of doing the work as follows :
" When the car loaded with rails came to the end of the track, the
two centre rails on either side were seized with iron nippers, hauled
forward off the car, and laid on the ties by four men who attended
exclusively to this. Over these rails the car was pushed forward, and
the process repeated. Behind these men came a gang of men who
half drove the spikes and screwed on the fish-plates. At a short
interval behind these came a gang of Chinamen, who drove home the
spikes already inserted and added the rest. Behind these came a
second squad of Chinamen, two deep on each side of the track. The
inner men had shovels, the outer ones picks. Together they ballasted
the track. The average rate of speed at which all these processes
were carried on was one minute and forty-seven and one-half seconds
to every two hundred and forty feet of track laid down. Those unac-
quainted with the enormous amount of material required to build ten
miles of railroad can learn something from the following figures : It
requires 25,800 cross-ties, 3,520 iron rails, 55,000 spikes, 7,040 fish-
plates, and 14,080 bolts, the whole weighing 4,362,000 pounds. This
material is required for a single track, exclusive of ' turnouts.'
" To bring this material forward and place it in position, over
274 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
4,000 men and hundreds of cars and wagons were employed. The
discipHne acquired in the four years since the commencement of the
road enabled the force to begin at the usual time in the morning,
calm and unexcited, and march steadily on to 'Victory,' as the place
where they rested at 1.30 p.m. was called, having laid eight miles of
track in six hours. Here this great ' Central ' army must be fed, but
Campbell was equal to the requirements. The camp and water train
was brought up at the proper moment, and the whole force took din-
ner, including many distinguished guests. After the ' hour nooning'
the army was again on the march, and at precisely 7 p.m. ten miles
and two Jnindred feet had becfz completed.
"When this was done, the 'Union' committee expressed their
satisfaction and returned to their camp, and Campbell sprang upon
the engine and ran it over the ten miles of track in forty minnteSy
thus demonstrating that the work was well done!'
Our national government has been severely criticised by many of
its subjects for the liberal aid it rendered to the enterprise. First,
government granted to the railroad company ** every alternate section
of land for twenty miles, on each side of the road," which would be
twenty sections, or 12,800 acres for each mile of the road. The aggre-
gate in acres for the whole road from Omaha to Sacramento, the ter-
minus of the road when it was first built, was 23,735,104 acres. Gov-
ernment agreed also to issue its thirty-year six per cent bonds in aid
of the work as follows : for the least expensive portion of the road
over the plains, $16,000 per mile; the next most difficult portion,
$32,000 per mile ; and for the mountainous district, $48,000 per mile.
These pledges of the government footed up $51,121,632.
In the commencement of the work, fault-finders appeared in
almost every grade of society. Statesmen and laymen alike charged
Congress with "extravagance," "unwisdom," "fooling away the
nation's land and money." Multitudes of the "common people"
accepted the criticisms of the more public men, and seemed to take
it for granted that government had acted without reason in the
affair. Thus men fretted, grumbled, and bandied hard epithets while
the work went bravely on. But long since, most of them, seeing
their folly, abandoned their opposition, until now the dissatisfaction
is confined chiefly to those who can see no connection between a
loyal public spirit and national prosperity, — ignorant, unpatriotic
men. The people understand now, that but for the Union Pacific
Railroad, the government lands over much of the way, would be
comparatively valueless. They were so before there was a prospect
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 275
of the railroad being built. But on the day of driving the last spike
they were lifted into market value ; and from that day to this there
has been a constantly increasing demand for them at twice their
former value. The best bargain the United States government ever
made was when it contributed twenty-three million acres of land and
fifty millions of bonds, to aid in constructing this road to the Pacific ;
unless, possibly, we except its bargain, when, through President
Jefferson, it purchased the *' Louisiana Province " of the French
government for about two cents an acre.
The intelligent citizens of our country to-day appreciate the re-
marks of Senator Wilson of Massachusetts, afterwards Vice-President
of the United States, who said, in the Thirty-Seventh Congress,
when this project was under discussion: —
** I give no grudging vote in giving away either money or land.
I would sink $100,000,000 to build the road, and do it most cheer-
fully, and think I had done a great thing for my country. What are
^75,000,000 or $100,000,000 in opening a railroad across the central
regions of this continent, that shall connect the people of the Atlan-
tic and Pacific, and bind us together } Nothing. As to the lands, I
don't grudge them."
After the road had been completed two years. Senator Stewart,
from the Committee on the Pacific Railroad, said in his report to the
United States Senate : —
*' The cost of the overland service for the whole period — from the
acquisition of our Pacific coast possessions down to the completion
of the Pacific railroad — was over $8,000,000 per annum, and this
cost was constantly increasing.
"The cost, since the completion of the road, is the annual inter-
est [which includes all the branches — Ed.] — $3,897,129, — to which
must be added one-half the charges for services performed by the
company, about $1,163,138 per annum, making a total expenditure
of about $5,000,000, and showing a saving of at least $3,000,000 per
annum.
" This calculation is upon the basis that none of the interest will
ever be repaid to the United States, except what is paid by the ser-
vices, and that the excess of interest advanced over freights is a
total loss.
" In this statement no account is made of the constant destruc-
tion of life and private property by Indians ; of the large amounts of
money paid by the secretary of the treasury as indemnity for dam-
ages by Indians to property in the government service on the plains,
276 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
under the act of March 3, 1849; of the increased mail facilities; of
the prevention of Indian wars ; of the increased value of public lands ;
of the development of the coal and iron mines of Wyoming, and the
gold and silver mines of Nevada and Utah ; of the value of the road
in a commercial point of view, in utilizing the interior of the conti-
nent and in facilitating trade and commerce with the Pacific coast
and Asia ; and, above all, in cementing the Union and furnishing
security in the event of foreign wars."
According to Senator Stewart, the government saves three mil-
lion dollars annually by the operation of this railroad, so that the sav-
ing of seventeen years will cover the bonds which it pledged. And
if the gift of twenty-three million acres of land made salable as many
more acres and doubled the price, surely no one has any reason to
criticise the government for the bargain.
POPULATION.
Another item should be recorded here, as showing the marvellous
growth of the West. In i860, the States and Territories on the line
of the Union Pacific Railway, and immediately contiguous, embraced
a population of only 554,301, with thirty-two miles of railway, and
232 miles of telegraph. In 1870 (the expiration of the ten years in
which the Pacific road was planned and built), the population had in-
creased to 1,011,971, with 4,191 miles of railway, and 13,000 miles of
telegraph completed, and hundreds of miles more in progress. The
investment of capital, too, had grown to be enormous, amounting to
$363,750,000, without including investments in mining, cattle-raising,
agriculture, and other industries. To represent the almost incredible
growth down to the present time, we must treble, if not quadruple,,
the aforesaid figures.
The rapid advance of the population of the New West is phe-
nomenal. Nevada's gain was the smallest, and yet Nevada's gain
from 1870 to 1880 was fifty per cent. In the same period, California
and Idaho gained sixty per cent ; Oregon, one hundred per cent ;
Utah, one hundred and fifty per cent ; Kansas, two hundred per cent ;,
Wyoming two hundred and fifty per cent ; Nebraska and Washington
Territory, three hundred per cent ; Colorado, four hundred per cent ;;
Arizona, four hundred and fifty per cent ; and Dakota, nine hundred
per cent. That portion of our country which lies west of the Missis-
sippi added four million to its population in ten years. The reader
can make his own estimate as to the time, near at hand, when the
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 2/7
population of our country west of the Mississippi will be greater than
its population east of it. For, "westward the star of empire takes
its way" at the rate oi fifty feet every twenty-four hours, or three
and 07ie-kalf miles each year.
There are more inhabitants and wealth west of the Mississippi
River to-day than there were east of it fifty years ago. In 1820,
Ohio was a wilderness, resounding with the stroke of the pioneer's
axe ; but now the centre of the population of the United States is
on its western border. Fifty years from now, its centre of popula-
tion will be, doubtless, not far this side of the Mississippi River.
And, more than to any other enterprise, the country is indebted to
the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad for this growth.
The State of Nebraska, so recently on the frontier of the '' Far
West " is now quite central. When the city of Washington became
the national capital, it was too far west to suit many Eastern people.
It is now altogether one side, as the geography of the country proves^
and much too far east to suit the inhabitants of the New West.
The completion of the Union Pacific Railroad put an end to high
prices. During the winter of 1865-66, the garrison at Fort Sedg-
wick, and the inhabitants of Julesburg, Nebraska, paid one hundred
and five dollars per cord for wood, which was the price the govern-
ment paid by contract. The wood was purchased in Denver at a
cost of about twenty dollars per cord, and the actual cost of hauling
it to Julesburg was from sixty dollars to seventy-five dollars per cord.
The government allowed contractors to put in what hard wood they
could get at double price, — two hundred and ten dollars per cord.
Contractors ceased to '' feather their own nests," when the thunder
of the train broke the silence of prairie and mountain.
Let the reader return now to the hardships, perils, and sufferings
which made the New West a place of terror to multitudes a single
generation ago, that by contrast he may appreciate the almost incred-
ible achievements of enterprise, in building railroads through a wild
mountainous country, where so recently explorers starved and died in
a vain search for a way to the Pacific Slope.
RAILROADS OVER MOUNTAINS.
In no way can we exhibit the marvel of enterprise to such advan-
tage as by a description of railways through the deepest canons and
over the highest mountains. The prediction, fifty years ago, that the
time would come when pleasure-seekers would travel in Pullman cars.
278
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
where then explorers died of hunger, would have been received with
derisive laughter. Yet this strange experience has been realized.
We have already spoken of the Arkansas Canon as a physical
wonder ; it remains to show how human enterprise has converted it
into a public thoroughfare, marvellous both in its conception and exe-
cution.
It is not known that man or beast ever passed through this remarka-
ble gorge until the year 1870.
When the project of con-
structing a railway through
it was first made public, it
was received with doubt and
ridicule. Engineers said,
"The thing is impossible."
After elaborate examination,
however, and long, thought-
ful research and study, an en-
gineer, in whose dictionary
the word "impossible" was
never put, was found willing
and anxious to undertake the
work. Under his skilful man-
agement, the railway was
built, and a new and scarcely
dreamed of pleasure offered
to the public.
It was necessary to begin
the work of constructing the
railway several hundred feet
above the river, splitting the
granite walls downward
Workmen were suspended
from the edge of the caiion
above by ropes, and lowered
to the spot where operations
must commence, as seen in the illustration. There they hung, midway
between the opening above and the bed of the river, until a foothold was
secured by drilling and splitting. The obstacles and perils attending
such a remarkable enterprise cannot be overestimated. The engineer,
with faith and courage enough to undertake a work of such magnitude,
must be accorded a high place among the world's benefactors. But
LOCATING THE LINE.
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 279
all difficulties were overcome by patience and perseverance, and the
marvellous work was accomplished without an accident. The ten
miles of railway through this canon cost $1,400,000 (one million four
hundred thousand dollars), or one hundred and forty thousand dollars
per mile.
The walls of the canon, two thousand feet high, approach nearest
to each other at the " Royal Gorge," where they are not more than
thirty feet apart. Here the passage is too narrow for both river and
railway, so a bridge is suspended over the chasm by rods, over which
the railway train passes on its way.^ The scene is totally unlike any-
thing the traveller has witnessed before. It is awe-inspiring and even
fearful. There were from sixty to seventy passengers on the train
when the author passed through the canon in an observation-car.
Not a word was spoken. No merriment was noticeable. Silent,
serious thoughtfulness marked every countenance. Several passen-
gers unconsciously rose to their feet and uncovered their heads, as
if in the immediate presence of the Author of all this grandeur.
A woman directly in front of the writer bowed her head and wept.
A score of others showed their honest sympathy with her by their
irrepressible emotion, as unbidden tears bedimmed their vision.
The scene and the occasion of the first railway excursion through
this caiion was graphically described by the Denver Tribiuie as fol-
lows : —
"The most stupendous achievement of railway engineering over
Nature's efforts to obstruct the pathway of commerce, was trium-
phantly achieved on the 7th of May, 1879, by the Atchison, Topeka
and Santa Fe Railway Company, which on that day made the pas-
sage of the Grand Canon of the Arkansas, with a train of cars carry-
ing an excursion party of ladies and gentlemen, numbering over two
hundred persons. This rock-bound river pathway became known to
Spanish missionaries as early as the year 1642. From that time it
was not known that any animal life had ever passed through it suc-
cessfully until the winter of 1870. The approach to the Canon is
gradual. The distant hills draw nearer, and the valley of the Arkan-
sas becomes narrower and narrower, until the river is shut in closely
on both sides by high mountains, sloping gently away and covered
with verdure. Then the slope of the mountains becomes more per-
pendicular, and the hills become higher, until suddenly the river is
completely shut in by mountains with mighty tops. The roar and
rattle of the train grows louder and echoes up and down. The train
^ See piiTJ r
28o MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
is fairly in the canon. It moves slowly. The mountain walls are of
a dizzy height, and so close together that, looking ahead, they appear
simply to form a crevice, a huge, awful, crooked crevice, through
which the miserable little train is timidly crawling. The curves of
the canon are superb. They constitute the finishing touch to its
grandeur, and fill the mind with a full appreciation of this great
miracle of nature. But the Royal Gorge ! Imagine two almost per-
fectly perpendicular walls rising to the height of two thousand feet,
those walls presenting jagged and irregular masses of rock that on
the railroad side hang over the train all creviced and ready to fall in
thousands of tons. The road-bed is cut out of the solid rock, and
masses of this hang over it, stretching out a hundred feet. One
cannot look up to the top of this wall on account of those projecting,
irregular bluffs, but the height to the top, even as measured by the
eye, disturbs the faculties and brings on vertigo. The cooped-up
Arkansas rushes madly by, a narrow thread, made still more so by the
rocks thrown into it. There is not room to step from the train with-
out pitching into the river. Not a word is uttered. The engineer
whistles occasionally, and timid folks look for the rocks to fall. It is
really a strain on the mind to take it in ; and this can be only feebly
done on a single trip. Two thousand feet above you are the tops
of the mountain walls. You are imprisoned in a crack thirty feet
wide, and are partially under one mountain wall. You can see on
the opposite side the gradations of the verdure, rich below, impover-
ished above. And the curves become more awful as you look ahead
or back.
" There was no sun in the Gorge, but it slanted down the opposite
mountain wall as the party returned through the canon, increasing
the surpassing beauty of the scene."
Leaving the Arkansas Canon, and traversing the upper Arkansas
Valley, as lovely as it is narrow, the train begins to scale the heights
of Marshall Pass. The serrated peaks of the Sangre de Cristo are
in full view at the west, and the scene is indescribably grand. Two
ponderous engines puff and tug upward with their train of human
freight. Looking far away towards the summit, a narrow rim or line
is seen. "That is the track over which we are to pass to the sum-
mit," said the conductor. Winding around the mountains, through
the deepj wild ravines, ascending from one hundred and fifty to two
hundred and ten feet to the mile, in one hour the train triumphantly
gains the summit, ten thousand seven hundred and sixty feet above
the sea. Such a panorama here opens to the view ! The Sangre de
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
281
The above cut shows the marvellous railroading over Marshall Pass. The Pass is entered almost im-
perceptibly from Poncha Pass, and the whole wonderful ascent might very readily be imagined as one and
the same. The summit is almost eleven thousand feet above the sea, and the tortuous method by which
the daring engineers of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad have achieved this summit can best he un-
derstood by studying this cut, which illustrates the alignment of the track.
282
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Cristo Range looms up in the distance, wearing a crown of snow that
glistens in the distance, while the great San Luis Park, larger than
the State of Connecticut, stretches out at its base. Westward the
mountain peaks are less towering, but the scene is no less inspiring.
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 283
Looking down into the Tomichi Valley, two thousand feet, perhaps,
the railway track is seen doubling back and forth in its zigzag course
to Gunnison City. The vision is unobstructed, and the traveller
begins to comprehend what a joy it is to stand upon the ''Conti-
nental Divide," and ''survey creation round." How is it possible for
the railroad train to reach the valley below in safety, turning sharp
curves, rounding abrupt headlands, and gliding along the verge of
awful precipices } But it does ; and when the delighted passenger
looks backward and upward from the valley to the cold, bleak, be-
wildering height from which he has descended, he wonders still more
how it was done.
This route is embraced in what the managers of the Rio Grande
Railway denominate "The Scenic Route" ; and truly it is all of that.
Any railway crossing the Rocky Mountains or the Sierra Nevadas
must necessarily take a route that is "scenic." Grand and beauti-
ful scenery exists in profusion everywhere. Rising from extended
"plains" into mountainous regions, through canons whose mighty walls
on either side tower two thousand feet towards the sky, with here
and there a pinnacle hundreds of feet higher, peaks of different shape
and size piled one above another, cliff on cliff ascending to dizzy
heights, rushing torrents far, far below the track, and silvery cascades
leaping from dizzy summits, with here and there a park or lake
stretching out for miles its fruitful acres or silver sheen, eight thou-
sand feet above the sea, — such a route possesses enough of the
grand, beautiful, and sublime to challenge the appellation, "scenic."
A description of a trip through Platte Canon will still further
exhibit the marvels of railroad enterprise in the New West.
Twenty miles from Denver the train entered the canon upon a
shelf so narrow as to suggest the thought that railroad builders were
willing to accept the smallest favor from the contesting Platte tor-
rent. Once within the canon, the train began to ascend the steep
grade, winding its serpentine way under the shadow of overhanging
rocks and frowning cliffs, round and round, higher and higher, up,
up, up, often rising two hundred feet to the mile, with castellated
walls towering a thousand feet above, and here and there a moun-
tain-peak shooting two or three thousand feet into the air, present-
ing a scene of grandeur and sublimity that baffles description. We
were filled with surprise and wonder. Evcr\' curve disclosed new
glories ; every mile bore witness to the indomitable perseverance and
tact of man.
The " tu^r of war" to the locomotives was on the home stretch
284
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
between Webster and Kenosha Divide, which is 10,139 fecc above
the sea. The ascent is steep and perilous, and the railway track
doubles back and forth upon itself several times in order to scale the
heights. It is two miles to the summit ; but that point cannot be
reached without winding about, going eight or ten miles to ascend
two. At a point near Webster, the conductor requested the passen-
gers to look down into the valley from whence they had come. The
descent to the valley was almost perpendicular, and the distance from
fifteen hundred to two thousand feet. Obeying the request, we
looked down, and lo !
there nestled in the
valley the neat lit-
tle village we had
left some time be-
fore directly under
us, the houses ap-
pearing no larger
than hen-coops, and
a horse and cart on
the street resem-
bling a child's toy
horse and cart. A
sense of danger came
over us as we gazed
for a moment and
then turned away
from a marvel that
one does not care
to view too long.
From Kenosha Divide the train descended into South Park, intro-
ducing the sight-seer to a spectacle for which he is wholly unpre-
pared, — a park level as a house floor, containing two thousand two
hundred square miles, nine thousand five hundred feet above the level
of the sea, and completely walled with mountain peaks, covered
with perpetual snow. The illustration furnishes the curve of the rail-
way at the head of the park, with a view of the enormous plain and
the tall snowy range.
Before the time of railroads, a line of stages passed along the
northerly rim of the park, over Mosquito Pass, which is twelve
thousand feet above the sea. This was the highest stage line in the
world.
HEAD OF SOUTH PARK.
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
285
Some of the heaviest railroad work and most remarkable scenery
of the New West are found between South Park and Leadville by
the way of Breckinridge. An observer describes the scenic features
of the route so vividly, that we quote him in full. - From Como,
with the first revolution of the wheels, the climb for the crest between
two oceans begins. Ahead are the hills, snow-crowned ; behind, the
Park where a hundred shades blend in a picture vast and rare.' In
the first gulch traversed, miners are washing gold. Towns and
STAGE LINE OVER MOSQUITO PASS,
ranches dot the receding levels. Unexpected tints develop with
every foot of progress. The feelings of the moment admit of no
record. As timber line is approached there is something awful in
the grandeur. The mountains tower lifeless and sombre. Even the
trees are dead and standing gaunt and fire scarred. Far below a
stream crooks itself along the valley. At Boreas, 11,496 feet above
the sea, the summit is reached. From this point the view is sublime
and full of warmth. The trees are dense and luxuriant. Their piney
odor fills the summer air. Ten Mile range rises in the near distance
286
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
ponderous and pure under its snow. You are looking down the
valley of the Blue, by many considered the loveliest encompassed by
the Rockies. Over it is a blue-gray mist like a veil, that parts at the
touch of the sun. Mines in every direction place romance and reality
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
287
hand in hand. The Atlantic Slope fades from sight. An old Ute
trail can just be discerned on the banks of the stream, lost now and
again in the trees. Pacific Peak frowns down snowily, heedless that
summer winds are playing about its base. It is full of silver and
gold, and men are delving for it."
The illustration affords the reader a fine view of the railway in its
upward course to the mountain summit, winding about among the
peaks, which are marvellous in size and numbers, until the laboring
locomotive halts like a conqueror upon the crest.
The writer quoted speaks of ''timber line." "Timber line" is the
ABOVE TIMBER LINE.
altitude above which vegetation ceases. The altitude varies from
10,500 to 11,500 feet, and is too bleak and cold for tree or shrub to
live. Barrenness and desolation, or perpetual snow, meet the eye
above the altitude named. Our illustration shows very clearly what
" timber line " is.
The ''Alpine Tunnel" is reached through "Chalk Creek Caiion,"
— a ride of wonderful interest. Some tourists have declared that
this ride cannot be duplicated in the whole world ; that neither writer
nor painter can do justice to the attractions. From personal obser-
vation we affirm that some of the wildest scenery which we saw in
the Rocky Mountains was seen here. In some localities it ceased to
288
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
be grand and became awful. The thought of penetrating such an
*' abyss of desolation " in a Pullman car would have seemed absurd but
for the fact that ours was doing that very thing. A photographic
view in this canon, at an interesting point, will give a good idea of
the wild, rough, and desolate appearance of the gorge.
We remember with peculiar interest a descent into a narrow valley,
where, in order to ascend the mountains on the opposite side, the
railway made a detour of several miles, skirting a lot of five or six
acres or more in performing the feat. We drew a plan of the road
in our note-book at the time, and subsequently found a pictorial
representation of it (see following page).
CHALK CREEK CANON.
At a point eight or ten miles from the Alpine Tunnel, a passen-
ger said, pointing to the west, ''See that black spot yonder! that is
the tunnel." The ''black spot " appeared to be about as large as a
man's hat, and a mile away. All were surprised to be told that it was
distant eight or ten miles.
"The tunnel is above timber-line," continued our informant, "too
high up for anything to grow."
"What is the altitude } " we asked.
" Eleven thousand six hundred and twenty-three feet above the sea,
the highest railway in the world, except one in the South American
Andes."
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
289
290 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
The tunnel is one thousand seven hundred and seventy-three feet
long, with approaches which add eight hundred feet more, and is six
hundred feet beneath the Pass. It conducts the passenger from
the Atlantic to the Pacific Slope in a few minutes.
•Nearly two years were occupied in building this tunnel. '* Its
twenty thousand lineal feet of Cahfornia red-wood lining was brought
up on pack-horses over trails which had known the touch of no hoof
but the mountain sheep's, and where man himself had scarce dared
to venture. Operations were carried on from both ends, and, despite
the curvature, when the respective gangs first caught the flash of
each other's lamps, they were less than one inch out of the way as
the engineer had mapped it for them. The great expense was only
warranted by the greatness of the country, which is now fastened to
the outer world by this link of stygian darkness."
The point in the tunnel where the train passes from the Atlantic
to the Pacific Slope is at the centre ; and the writer whom we have
just quoted says: ''The impetus tells the moment it is crossed, and
the engines, before goaded to their work, have to be held in severe
curb by the courageous drivers. Two drops of water, such as con-
tinually fall from the roof, alight but half an inch apart. Trembling
a second in the balance, each starts with its fellows ; and when they
join finally the ocean, there is the span of a continent between them."
The reader may be interested, at this point, in the following about
European tunnels. "At the present time the Alpines are pierced by
three remarkably long tunnels, entering Italy from France, Switzer-
land, and Austrian Tyrol, respectively, and called according to the
mountain chains that are traversed, the Mt. Cenis, St. Gothard, and
Arlberg tunnels. Of these Mt. Cenis is seven miles and three-quar-
ters in length. Its cost was $15,000,000. The St. Gothard tunnel
is nine miles and a quarter in length, and cost $13,500,000, the
diminution in expense being due principally to the more rapid
progress of the work by improvements in the drilling-machines.
The Arlberg tunnel is shorter than either Mt. Cenis and St. Gothard,.
being only six miles and a half. The last and most formidable rival
will be the Simplon tunnel, by which the existing line from Geneva
to Martigni and Brieg will be carried through the mountains ta
Dumo d'Ossola, and so on to Pallanza or Stresa on the Lago Mag-
giore. As this tunnel will be commenced at a much lower level
than any of the others, it will necessarily be large, the rough esti-
mate being twelve miles and a half and the estimated cost somewhere
about $20,000,000."
M.-fRl'ELS OF EXTERPR/SE.
29
On Lire of U. P. Ra.lroad. AROUND THE PALISADES
292 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Emerging from the tunnel upon the Pacific slope, the scene is
indescribable. The train creeps cautiously around the Palisades,
pausing a few moments for the passengers to take in a view which a
trip around the world cannot furnish.
Here the Palisades rise perpendicularly several hundred feet
above the track (narrow-gauge), which is hewn out of its side. More
than a thousand feet below, the railway, over which the train will
pass, is visible, resembling a narrow shelf in the side of the mountain.
Two thousand feet and more below is Quartz Creek, running like a
thread of silver through the valley. Poised upon this shelf, with
unsurpassed grandeur above, around, and beneath, the Christian
observer is filled with ''wonder, love, and praise." The height is
perilous, and the traveller finds himself clutching tightly the plat-
form-rail as he looks down into the deep abyss at his feet ; yet devoid
of fear. The scene is so novel, so overpowering, and bewitching in
its effects, that there is no place for fear. An observer said, what
other observers can appreciate, " One forgets that an overturned
coach would hurl him thousands of feet down into the abyss, and
feels that if such a catastrophe were to happen while his eyes feasted
on that glorious landscape, he would die happy."
"■ How many feet do you think it is down into the valley } " we
inquired of a fellow-traveller, in whose face could be seen traces of
alarm.
*' I have no idea," he answered solemnly, adding, after a moment's
hesitation, "we are not far from eternity," — a remark that is true of
us mortals at almost any time and anywhere ; perhaps a little more sig-
nificant and impressive up there clinging to the Palisades, nearly twelve
thousand feet above the sea. Nevertheless, all things considered, it
is true, doubtless, that a man is no nearer eternity when he emerges
from the "Alpine Tunnel" than he is on the "Great Plains." There
have been no accidents there ; every precaution against accident has
been provided without regard to expense, not the least of which is the
instant stopping of the cars by automatic pressure in case of disaster.
We do not deny that there is more danger in travelling by rail over
mountains than there is over plains ; but the additional novelty and
pleasure offsets the peril. While I am writing, the news comes that
the air-break of a freight train near Marshall Pass became useless,
when the train dashed forward with constantly accelerating speed,
until, going at the rate of fifty or sixty miles an hour, the locomotive
leaped from the track down into the gorge hundreds of feet below.
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
293
carrying the twenty loaded cars with it, — a complete wreck of
everything.
Mr. Crofutt relates a thrilling incident in Echo Canon, illustrative
of the foregoing : —
''Mr. Miles, or 'Paddy,' as he was familiarly called, was foreman
to the Casement brothers, who laid the track of the Union Pacific
Railroad. One morning, Paddy started down Echo Canon with a
long train of flat cars, sixteen in number, loaded with ties and iron
rails for the road below Echo City, where were then, as now, the sta-
THE RUNAWAY TRAIN.
tions, switches, etc. The reader will remember that from the Divide
to the mouth of Echo Canon is a heavy grade, no level place on which
cars would slack their speed.
"The train had proceeded but a few miles down the canon, going
at a lively rate, when the engineer discovered that the train had
parted, and four loaded cars had been left behind. Where the train
parted, the grade was easy, hence that portion attached to the loco-
motive had gained about half a mile on the stray cars. But when
discovered they were on heavy grade and coming down on the train
with lightning speed. What was to be done } The leading train could
not stop to pick them up, for at the rate of speed at which they were
294 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
approaching, a collision would shiver both trains, destroying them and
the lives of those on board.
" There were two men — Dutchmen — on the loose cars, who might
put on the brakes and stop the runaway. The whistle was sounded,
but they heard it not ; they were fast asleep behind the pile of tics.
On came the cars, fairly bounding from the track in their unguided
speed, and away shot the locomotive and train. Away they flew, on,
ciround curves and over bridges, past rocky points and bold headlands ;
on with the speed of the wind, but no faster than came the cars be
hnid him.
" ' Let on the steam ! ' cried Paddy ; and with the throttle chock
open, with wild, terrible screams of the whistle, the locomotive
plunged through the gorge, the mighty rocks sending back the
screams in a thousand ringing echoes.
" ' Off with the ties ! ' shouted Paddy once more, as the whistle
shouted its warning to the station men ahead to keep the track
straight and free, for there was no time to pause — that terrible train
was close on to them, and if they collided, the canon would have a
fearful item added to its history. On went the train past the side-
tracks, the almost frantic men throwing off the ties, in hopes that
sonie of them would remain on the track, throw off the runaways,
and thus save the forward train. Down the gorge they plunged, the
terror keeping close by them, leaping along, — almost flying, said one,
who told us the tale, — while the locomotive strained every iron nerve
to gain on its dreaded follower. Again the wild scream of the loco-
motive, of 'switches open,' rung out on the air, and was heard and
understood in Echo City. The trouble was surmised, not known, but
the switches were ready ; and if the leading train had but the distance,
it could pass on, and the following cars be switched off the track and
allowed to spend their force against the mountain side. On shot the
locomotive, like an arrow from the bow, the men throwing over the
ties until the train was well-nigh unloaded, when just as they were
close^to the curve by which the train arrives at the station, they saw
the dreaded train strike a tie, or something equally of service, and
with a desperate plunge rush down the embankment into the little
valley and creek below. * Down brakes,' screamed the engine, and
in a moment more the cars entered Echo City, and were quietly
waiting on the side-track for further developments. The excited
crowd, alarmed by the repeated whistling, was soon informed of the
cause of these screams, and immediately went up the track to the
scene of the disaster to bring in the dead bodies. When they arrived.
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
295
they found the poor unfortunates sitting on the bank unharmed, hav-
ing just woke up. The first they knew of the trouble was when they
were pitched away from the broken cars on the
soft greensward.
The debris of
car frames,
wheels, and tics,
gave them the
first intimation
they had re-
ceived that
something was
the matter."
Yes, there is
danger, but
there is also de-
light ; and the
fascination of
the latter more
than counterbal-
ances the reali-
ty of the former.
The descent
from the Pali-
sades is made by
the ''Hair- Pin
Curve," so
named from the
resembl an c e
which the curve
in the road
bears to a hair-
pin.
The array of
mountains, and
the splendors of
the scene on
every hand, do not diminish on leaving the Palisades. Grand beyond
comparison rises the Uncompahgre, 14,235 feet above the sea, a mon-
arch among the mountain peaks, leaning in royal dignity against the
horizon, and looking down from his pinnacle of fame upon the les-
ser peaks around him.
UNCOMPAHGRE PEAKS.
296
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Ere this the reader has inquired within himself, why railroads in
the Rocky Mountains are not blockaded with snow through the
winter. At the East, where the snow-fall is far less than it is among
the mountains of the West, railroads are frequently blocked with
snow for several days. And yet, it is claimed that, on the whole,
trains on the mountain-roads are not so frequently delayed by snow
as trains are in the East. It was not so, however, in the infancy of
these railways, as the long and expensive blockade of February and
March, 1869, on the Union Pacific, proves. When the railroad across
the continent was built, it was known that snow-sheds or galleries,
would be necessa-
ry over the Sierra
Nevada Moun-
tains, where the
snow is often from
sixteen to twenty
feet deep. But
such a safeguard
against heavy
snows was not
thought to be ne-
cessary in the
Rockies, until ex-
perience exposed
the mistake. Then
snow-fences were
resorted to for pro-
tection, as in the
East, but in many
localities they
proved useless. Hence, snow-sheds are the chief reliance now.
The above cut gives a fine view of a curve in the Central Pacific
Railway, on the Sierra Nevada Mountains, with the snow-sheds.
On one section of this railway there are twenty-eight miles of
continuous snow-sheds, including several tunnels from one to sixteen
hundred feet in length. If all the snow-sheds built by the Union
and Central Pacific were placed in line, they would extend nearly a
hundred miles, erected at a cost of one million dollars. They are
built in the most substantial manner, stone and the heaviest timber
being used. The following cut shows the interior of a snow-shed.
" Snow-slides " are more perilous than snow-storms. Hence
SNOW GALLERIES, SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE,
297
sheds on the mountain sides are built so as to conduct the avalanche
over the roof into the valley below ; so that while the passenger train
glides safely through the artificial gallery, a mighty avalanche of
INTERIOR OF SNOW-SHEDS,
snow may be tumbling over it, and bury, forty feet deep, the hamlet
or village in the valley. If a snow-shed be necessary on a compara-
tively level section, it is built with a sharp roof, like any other build-
ing designed to support n heavy wei:;ht of snow.
2g8
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
A good idea of the magnitude of a snow-slide may be derived from
the fact that, in the winter of 1883-84, a slide completely buried a
mining town in one of the canons of the Rocky Mountains already
described, destroying most of the buildings. It is claimed that a
snow-slide in the Animas Canon, two years ago, was a half-mile in
length, and when it landed in the deep gorge below, the snow was
forty feet deep. A still more disastrous slide, at the Virginius mine,
near Ouray, was reported by a Colorado paper as follows : —
" When the avalanche descended upon the boarding-house at four
o'clock, Saturday, there were eleven men in it, some asleep in their
bunks and others waiting to go on a night shift ; while Armstrong
and Shieldler were in the kitchen. Boyle escaped through an open-
ing and ran for assistance, and all the men at the mines were speedily
engaged in tunnelling the snow to save the buried men.
THE GREAT SNOW-PLOUGH.
"The party from Ouray, which started out Saturday, reached the
post-ofifice that night, having had to abandon their horses and use
snow-shoes. Reaching the Monongahela mine, they found the Vir-
ginius workmen there with four corpses. Sleds were made for the
dead bodies, and the parties started yesterday to return to Ouray,
David Reed in front breaking the trail. Just as they reached Cum-
berland basin, another snow-slide came down on David Reed, and in
a second had carried him into the air and over a precipice before the
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 299
«yes of the horror-stricken men. Following in another instant, a
second snow-slide descended upon the whole party, carrying away
the thirteen men.
"The sleds they were dragging and the corpses of the men went
nearly two thousand feet down the mountain with the slide, four of
them being hurled over a precipice five hundred feet high. Superin-
tendent Reed was carried to the edge of a precipice, where a tree
■caught and held him. The first man to escape from the slide was
Doyle, who arose bruised and dazed, and looking around, spied hands
and feet protruding from the snow all round. He went to work to help
the buried, each man as fast as rescued assisting to save the others
till all were rescued. Tlie bodies of the four men killed at Virginius
lie under twenty feet of snow, and probably will remain there until
•spring."
The Central Pacific Railway has a mammoth snow-plough which
rests upon two four-wheeled trucks. It is twenty-eight feet long, ten
and a half feet wide, thirteen and a quarter high, and weighs forty-
one THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND SIXTY POUNDS ! It WaS OUCe
driven by ten locomotives into a snow-bank on the Sierra Nevada
Mountains at the rate of sixty miles an hour.
In this connection the following statement by the London Times
will be read with interest : —
"A statistical memoir lately issued by the Italian government en-
ables us to form some idea of the great destruction caused annually by
avalanches in the Alpine districts of Italy and the Tyrol. In the single
district of Val di Susa two avalanches fell on Jan. 18 ; one, at Bev-
ies, between Exilles and Salbertand, was estimated at about sixty
metres long and six deep, and slid down the slope a distance of about
a kilometre. Its volume is supposed to have been three hundred
and sixty thousand cubic metres, and the weight of snow composing
it was forty-five thousand tons. It destroyed sixteen houses and
killed forty-three persons. The second avalanche of Jan. 18 fell
near Venaus, was one hundred and fifty metres long, its volume was
about three million cubic metres, and it bore nearly a quarter of a
million tons of snow. But although the slide extended to nearly four
kilometres, only twenty-four houses were wrecked by it and six per-
sons killed. A third avalanche, which fell at Maflotto, and was com-
puted to contain little more than one thousand six hundred tons'
weight of snow, was much more destructive, killing seventeen persons
and destroying eighteen homes."
300 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
|K;'-:"i-i:)!;!ii;|ii!:i'i"iliP|(!||l1lllll|ll|IB^^
OVER VETA PASS, THROUGH TOLTEC GORGE.
At eight different points the Denver & Rio Grande Railway has
crossed the Rocky Mountains, instead of piercing them with long
and dismal tunnels. The altitude attained in the passage of Veta,
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
301
Pass is not so great as that of Alpine or Marshall passes, but the
scenery is not less remarkable. The ascent begins along the base
of La Veta Mountain, up a defile, at the head of which sta^'nds Dump
Mountain, defiant and frowning. The railway approaches the moun-
tain by 'Mndirection," and doubles so sharply upon itself that the
curve has become
as the
Shoe
famous
^'Mule
Curve."
From this point
the ascent is very
difficult, the grade
being two hundred
and seventeen feet
to the mile. The
road-bed is little
more than a groove
cut in the sides of
the mountain,
winding hither and
thither over the
Sangre de Christo
Range, which it
crosses at Veta
Pass at an altitude
of nine thousand
three hundred and
thirty-nine feet. A
bowlder started
from this point
goes thundering
down the precipi-
tous walls into the
Or, Line of D. & R. G. Railway. " ^ ' dcCp, tCrrlblc gOrgC
CROSSING SANGRE DE CHRISTO RANGE. bclow, a mile away.
A tourist christened the railway at this interesting point '' Railroad
ABOVE THE CLOUDS," bccausc, as a matter of fact, tempests rage, and
the artillery of heaven thunders and lightens below the track.
Passengers enjoy a sublime view from the train at Veta Pass.
Looking eastward, the sky shuts down upon the distant plains, while,
at the west, the majestic form of Sierra Blanca, the highest mountain
302
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
peak in this country, rises grandly fourteen thousand four hundred
and sixty-four feet. To the south, the symmetrical *' Spanish Peaks "
stand forth so lovely and yet grand in their appearance as to seem
phantom-like.
The peaks are respectively twelve thousand seven hundred and
twenty and thirteen thousand six hundred and twenty feet high, and
are known also as "The Twin Sisters," their Indian name being
Wahatoga, which means ''breast." These two mountains stand out
so boldly as to seem almost separated from the range to which they
belong. In a clear
day they have been -- "-"i^^^"^ -
seen from Denver, ^ ^^^pT
two hundred miles. — _^^ J^^ .
From Veta Pass ,5_^^^^ ^^^r^
the train descends,
by a zig-zag course,
into San Luis Park
— a level tract of
land measuring
eight thousand
square miles, and
containing over
five million acres,
larger than the
whole State of
Massachusetts.
The change from
mountain to prai-
rie scenery contrib-
utes largely to the
novelty and pleasure of the trip. The entrance to San Luis Park is
a beautiful picture in itself. Fort Garland is located there for the
defence of settlers against the Indians. The buildings are all adobe,
that is, built of sun-burnt brick, making a neat, attractive little village.
The fort will soon be abandoned, no doubt, as the danger from In-
dian depredations has ceased to exist.
It is twenty miles and more from Antonito to the summit of the
beautiful mesa which the railway traverses. "The ride up this
mesa, for over twenty miles, is one of the most delightful imagin-
able. The railway mounts the heights by an easy grade, winding in
labyrinthine curves among grassy knolls and parks of dark green
FORT GARLAND.
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
303
pines, and pinons, allowing the passengers to measure the elevation
by the plains below, and affording a hundred different views of Sierra
Blanca, the Sangre de Christo range, and the smooth outlines of the
Antonio Mountains." At one place, the railway doubles upon itself
twice, making three parallel tracks in the distance of a few rods, and,
from its shape, as represented in the cut, is called "The Whiplash."
m
THE. WHIPLASH.
A waggish traveller, dilating upon the great pleasure to be de-
rived from a ride over this mesa in a Pullman car, says that it is the
best illustration he has found of being '' carried to the skies on
flowery beds of ease."
In this part of Colorado the "Garden of the Gods" is repeated
in numerous monumental rocks which appear among the pines, rising
in fantastic columns, some of them nearly as high as the trees. The
artist has produced an excellent representation of one of the tallest.
One of the most remarkable curves of this railway occurs in one
of the wildest localities known. In the valley beneath the road are
304
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
numerous tall pine and hemlock trees, with many monumental rocks
rising high and dismal among them, as if a cemetery for departed
gods had been laid out there, and the silence of the dead had been
LOT'S WIFE.
unbroken until the daring enterprise of civilization penetrated the
strange solitude. It is known as "Phantom Curve." With the
monument-shaped rocks on one side, and the castellated cliffs, five
or six hundred feet high, on the other, the scene is strangely wild
and mysterious.
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
305
At one point on '' Phantom Curve " the first view of Toltec Tun-
nel is obtained — so far away that it appears only as a small black
spot on the face of the cliffs.
The reader can but partially imagine the grandeur of the scenery
viewed from the train at the opening of the tunnel, which is cut six
hundred feet through solid rock. A writer says of it : " Here the
beauty and the grandeur of the scenery are beyond description. All
the features of the landscape are on a Titanic scale. The track over
which the train has just passed can be seen circling the brow of
the mountain for miles, — a tiny, yellowish thread. Far beyond the
distant heights that shut in the valley rises the round top of San
Antonio Mountain, while across the valley the opposite mountains
rise higher and higher in vast, receding, wooded slopes. The narrow
On Line of D. & R G R
PHANTOM CURVE.-
vale, with its silvery stream and park-like groves of pine and aspen,
— among which it would be delightful to camp during the long days
of summer, — recalls the happy valley of the Abyssinian princes.
Nor is color wanting to complete the charm of the picture. The
dark hue of the pines, the light green and white of the shivering
aspen, and the red and gray that alternate in the cliffs, add their
subtle charms to the sublime panorama. When the train approaches
the end of the wall, the passengers look almost straight down to
where the stream emerges in foaming cascades from the jaws of Tol-
tec Gorge. Down ! down ! How little and how much the word
may mean ! Gazing from some lofty church-spire, or from the top of
one of the towers of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, more than
two hundred feet high, who does not grow faint and pale, and feel his
heart throbbing fiercely in his breast } But do you call that depth }
3o6
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
TOLTEC TUNNEL.
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
307
Double that distance downward from the railway track at Toltcc
Gorge, and you have hardly begun the descent. The stone you toss
from your hand drops far below, and you hear it strike again and
again, hundreds added to hundreds of feet distant, and yet silence
does not signify that it has reached the bottom ; it is simply out of
hearing. Double the distance again, so far that the strongest voice
can scarcely make itself heard, and when that terrible gulf is passed
you might still look down upon the tallest steeple in America ; for
the railway track at the brink of the chasm of Toltec Gorge is over
eleven hundred feet above Los Pinos Creek. But in a flash, in the
WEST END OF THE TOLTEC TUNNEL.
twinkling of an eye, the scene is changed. One parting glance at
the far-stretching valley and its mountain barriers, one shuddering,
giddy look far down the precipice among the jagged rocks, and then
all is hid from view in the darkness of the tunnel."
The train emerges from the tunnel on the west side of the moun-
tain, on the very brink of a frightful precipice, fifteen hundred feet
deep, while the cliffs opposite rise over two thousand one hundred
feet.
The writer just quoted says: "At the most critical point, where
the downward view takes in the deepest depths of the gorge, lined
with crags and splintered rocks, and bowlders, as large as churches,
fallen from the cliffs above, amid which the stream dashes downward
3o8
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
in snow-white cataracts, the train runs upon a solid bridge of trestle-
work, set in the rock, as if it were a balcony from which to obtain
the finest possible view of this most wonderful scene."
The cut shows the trestle-work quite plainly, and gives a good
idea of the descent on the west side of the mountain. It will be
noticed that the ''Toltec Gorge" is entered at the top, while the
" Grand Canon of the Arkansas " is entered at the bottom. In the
latter, the grandeur is all above the traveller ; in the former, it is all
below him.
Just west of Toltec Gorge, near the track, is a monument, erected
to the memory of the martyred President Garfield, bearing the fol-
lowing inscription : —
|n Pcmoriam.
JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD,
President of the United States. Died September iq, j88r.
MOURNED BY ALL THE PEOl
Erected by Members of the National Association of General Passenger and Ticket Agents,
who held Memorial Burial Services on this spot,
September 26, 1881.
September 26 was the day on which President Garfield was buried
at Cleveland, Ohio ; and this excursion party stopped here for servi-
ces, and there conceived the idea of
erecting a monument upon the spot.
Between Toltec Gorge and Du-
rango the scenery is remarkably
diversified. The beautiful and sub-
lime mingle as colors in a fine paint-
ing. Where the railway rounds
'^ White Rock Point," the view is
scarcely less impressive than that
at the entrance of Toltec Gorge.
In this locality we had the first
glimpse of "Dogtown," a city of
prairie-dogs. Who has not heard
of them ! And yet, in Kansas,
Nebraska, and New Mexico, we
caught a glimpse of only here and
, . , n fi D r- D 1 - w« :^ 3 there one of these historic creat-
Lme or D. & R. G. Railway. -- ^-, ^pfiElf
GARFIELD MONUMENT. '" " urcs. But lu southwestcm Colo-
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
309
rado we came upon the famous town, — a locality that swarmed with
these lively and somewhat eccentric inhabitants.
The full-grown prairie-dog is about the size of a gray squirrel,
though a multitude of smaller ones inhabit the town, which resembles
a potato-field — the hills minus the potato-tops. He is a timid, wild
little creature, and scampers to his home on the approach of humans,
with a shrill, sharp bark, resembling that of a small dog. Dogtown
is interesting because it is novel. It speaks well for this race of
diminutive dogs that they dwell together in cities like men. Nor is
DOGTOWN.
it at all discreditable to them that they run for dear life on the approach
of a locomotive; so that, as another well says, "the town appears
alive with projecting noses and disappearing tails." Here and there
some, more experienced and bolder than the rest, — perhaps the offi-
cials of the city, — sit upon their holes, elevated like potato-hills, and
bark defiantly, Dogtown is certainly one of the marvels of the West.
A beaver town is, in some respects, more interesting than a prairie-
dog town. Beavers colonize arid establish homes with singular inge-
nuity and perseverance. Forty years ago, when trapping in the
Rocky Mountains was in its prime, the beaver population was im-
mense. They were able to dam large rivers, and even to turn the
3IO
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
course of rivers. Groves of trees they gnaw down and cut up into
logs of suitable length for building dams. " They work like beavers "
is a phrase suggested by the industry and persistent labors of this
little animal. Trappers and tourists frequently discover their dams
now, long since built and deserted. William A. Baillie-Grohman,
the English author, who has traversed the Rockies from base to top,
describes a scene in the Wind River Mountains. " The pools had
BEAVERTOWN.
evidently once been one single lake ; but the beaver, by ingenious
dikes, had divided it into six or seven smaller sheets of water, lying
tier-like, one slightly raised over the other. The nearest to the
spring, the water was of course the highest, about eight or ten feet
being the difference between its water level and that of the lowest ;
miniature cascades and channel-like timber floats, connecting the dif-
ferent lakelets. These channels for timber are very ingeniously laid-
out contrivances, from three to five feet in width, and from two to
four feet in depth ; they are intended for floating larger pieces of
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
311
wood from place to place, especially where the previously constructed
dikes render the transportation of trunks a difficult or impossible job
for the little workers."
'* Beavers have left far more lasting and useful monuments of their
laborious activity on the surface of the country than the aboriginal
inhabitants. Whole valleys are fertilized by them, the process being
much quicker than one might suppose. Tersely rendered it is as
follows : Given a stream traversing a small valley with rocky ground
CANON OF THE RIO LAS ANIMAS.
on which grow only occasional cottonwoods ; a colony of beaver on
taking possession of it will soon make it into meadow land. The
grove of trees farthest down the stream is first tackled. When
autumn comes, few of them are left to rear their heads. They have
been gnawed down, their trunks cut into logs, which form the foun-
dation of an amazingly strong and massive dam stretched across the
stream where it is narrowest, forming on the upper side a profound
312 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
pool as deep as the dam is high. If the supply of wood lasts, con-
secutive dams will be built up stream, from thirty to a hundred yards
apart, so that finally, in the course of twenty or thirty years, there
will be no running water left. I have passed many such streams,
when for miles you will pass beaver dam upon beaver dam." He
speaks of beaver dams "forty and fifty yards in length, seven feet
high, and four feet in breadth at the base, — massive structures won-
derfully planned and built."
Animas Canon is picturesque and remarkably diversified with cliffs,
forest, and cascades. The cut gives a view of the canon where the
railway enters it, with a beautiful waterfall opposite. The railway
enters the canon midway between the valley and summit of the
mountain, thereby differing from the Arkansas and Toltec canons,
the railway entering the former at the bottom, and the latter at the
top. Some of the most difficult railway engineering is seen in this
canon, which is entered sixteen miles from Durango, and extends
nearly thirty miles. The track is hewn out of the rocky sides of the
mountain, winding around jagged cliffs, hundreds of feet above the
valley below, and hundreds from the summit above. Here the gran-
deur is both above and beneath the traveller.
As the train was crawling very cautiously along this narrow shelf
in the mountain, where the descent was so precipitous that passen-
gers had to lean forward from the windows to see the edge of the
track beneath the cars, every one maintaining a serious silence which
seemed to result from a just appreciation of '' the risky business," we
said to a member of the British Parliament, who was a passenger,
" Any remarks to offer } " Without relaxing the serious features of
his face in the least, he replied, "None whatever." This gentleman
informed me afterwards, that he had seen the greatest railroa.d engi-
neering in Europe, and travelled by rail through the wildest and
grandest mountain gorges, but nowhere had beheld more of the mar-
vellous in art and nature than he saw in Animas Canon. For some
distance this railway cost one hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars
a mile.
The grandest view of the mountains in Animas Canon is where
the " Needles " shoot upwards towards the sky, as strikingly appears
in the cut. It is not unlike similar scenes in the Rocky Mountains,,
except that the figure is clear-cut and peculiar.
Black Hawk and Central — two mining towns in Clear Creek
Canon — are only one mile apart ; indeed, the two towns merge into
each other. The climb of a single mile to Central is accomplished
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
313
by a "switch-back," making four miles of track necessary. A ride
over it is so novel that it becomes sensational. *' At one place, streets
On Lme of D. ^ R. G. Railwa
ANIMAS CANON AND NEEDLES.
are crossed above the level of the house-tops, and at another, after
circling the mountain sides for two miles, the train makes its appear-
314
MARVELS OF THE NEV/ WEST.
ance hugging the mountain side hundreds of feet above, and almost
directly over the town. One can almost look down into the fiery
chimneys of the great smelters, while streets rise above, and seem-
ingly bottomless shafts and excavations yawn beneath in this thrill-
ing ride among the gold mines." A good idea of the zigzags, curves,
and remarkable ascent of the railway between the two towns in ques-
tion may be derived from the illustration.
The editor of The New West wrote a very graphic description
of the Loop above Georgetown, which we copy : —
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
315
'' Formerly those who had journeyed this far were content, and
never dreamed that anything could excel what they had seen. If the
unaided imagination were to conjure up something more noteworthy,
it would likely be disbelieved by the sober judgment. But in reality
Georgetown is passed before an inkling of the real glories of the trip
is discovered. This part must be seen. The mind may understand
readily, a train winding through a chasm. It is less easy to under-
stand how it begins to rise, rise, rise along the side till finally you
look down upon a town in miniature. This is the way the train
proceeds. Through the suburbs of Georgetown, it worms its way up
a steep grade, curved
and blasted through the
rock. It crosses the
road leading to Green
Lake, which every tour-
ist must traverse before
leaving Colorado, and
skirts the side of moun-
tains which lose their
crests in snow. In the
valley flows the little
stream of Clear Creek.
Past Devil's Gate and
Bridal Veil F'alls, curves
and climbs the engine.
Looking directly above
you, you perceive a rail-
road track on a high
iron bridge crossing the
one you are following
almost at right angles, but in the form of a crescent. You wonder
what road that is above, and how it got there. For a little way the
track is comparatively straight, then it veers to the right, crosses the
creek and starts down the valley, but still up grade. For perhaps a
quarter of a mile this continues. Then the creek is crossed again or.
a high iron bridge. Looking directly down you perceive a track be-
low you. You wonder what track it is, and how it got there. Look
again. It is your own track. You are on the bridge up to which you
were looking a moment ago. You have ridden over an immense loop,
one of four in existence. There is one on the Southern Pacific, one in
Switzerland, and one in the Andes of South America. But this one
THE LOOP.
3i6
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
is more complex than any of the others, the strangest feat the most
skilful engineer ever accomplished.
''The wonderful bridge is three hundred feet long and eighty-
six feet high. From it Georgetown may be seen one way, nestled in
its mountains, and the other way there is a confusion of tracks. It
is a remarkable climb from the bridge over a fill seventy-six feet
high on too sharp a curve to admit of a bridge. There comes near
CROSSING THE RATON MOUNTAINS.
being a duplication of the loop. From here Georgetown is still in
sight beyond the three parallel tracks necessitated by the loop.
Looking down from the final curve shown in the cut, it is easy to
perceive that the display is a puzzle. There is a^wealth of track, but
it dodges hither and thither, no portion seemingly having any special
relation to its neighbor. Occasionally the entire trackage comes in
range at once. Then Silver Plume is reached, and the return trip
begins.
" The distance from Georgetown to Silver Plume, in an air-line,
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 31/
is a little over a mile ; by wagon road, two miles ; by rail, four and a
half miles. It is easily perceived that the extra distance is the only
method of conquering the grade. Iron is not laid for pastime in the
Rocky Mountains. The cost of this bit of eccentricity in railroading
was two hundred thousand dollars. The cost of building clear to
Bakerville, eight and a half miles, from Georgetown was four hun-
dred and sixty-five thousand dollars. What the ultimate destiny of
the road may be is a question. If extended to Leadville, it would
shorten the distance between that place and Denver to one hundred
and twelve miles. By the South Park, now far the shortest line, it is
one hundred and fifty. But whatever it may be, and may do, it has
certainly given to the tourist opportunity never before offered to
inspect the wonders of nature and mechanical science."
We described the "switch-back," by which the cars are able to
ascend from Black Hawk to Central. On a grander scale, the same
device carried the train, on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Rail-
road, over the Raton Mountains — a spur of the Rocky Mountains
— into New Mexico.
It is fifteen miles from Trinidad to the summit of the pass, and
an average rise of one hundred and twenty-one feet to the mile is
required. If this rise were equally distributed, it would not be exces-
sive ; but it is not. In some places the railway must ascend nearly
two hundred feet to the mile ; and, on the home-stretch, the rise is
over three hundred feet to the mile, and at first was accomplished
by a switch-back. " By it the cars left what is now the direct line,
and were carried over a steep incline track, running diagonally up the
hill ; thence, reversing their direction, they shot up another incline ;
then reversing again, they climbed to the summit, thus zigzagging
up the steep they could not directly scale. Even by this indirect
route, the enormous grade of 316.8 feet per mile was attained." On
the New Mexico side, the railway descended, in like manner, to a
point where a tunnel, two thousand and eleven feet long, has been
excavated, thus superseding the use of the switch-back, and shorten-
ing the line by several miles. The cut opposite furnishes a correct
view of the railroad over the mountain.
There is another very remarkable loop in the Tehachapi Pass,
California. The next illustration shows the course of the railway to
the summit of the pass, together with the loop. Within twenty-
five miles, the train rises nearly three thousand feet, — the altitude
at the pass being three thousand nine hundred and sixty-four feet, —
passing through seventeen tunnels, the aggregate length of which
3i8
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
is 7,683.9 feet. The tourist is well paid by this wonder for his long-
est trip.
The loop is three thousand seven hundred and ninety-five feet
in length, the upper track being seventy-eight feet higher than the
lower track. The engineering skill displayed in the construction of
this road will amply reward the tourist for his journey across the
continent to see it. The scenery along the route is indescribably
grand. Sometimes the train poises upon a dizzy height, from which
the traveller looks down into frightful chasms that make him
THE LOOP, TEHACHAPl PASS.
shudder. The loop is three hundred and forty miles from San
Francisco.
After passing through the ninth tunnel, the track makes a grace-
ful curve around the loop, and crosses it, at a distance above, as
represented by the following cut. Let the reader take in, if possible,
the engineering feat which the illustration correctly represents.
There is the ninth tunnel, and the railroad train crossing both tun-
nel and loop far above it. Surely, here is a marvel of American
enterprise !
In descending the Sierra Nevada Mountains, from Summit to
Colfax, the Union Pacific train winds around many precipitous cliffs,
affording the traveller a favorable opportunity to look down into many
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
319
frightful chasms. The most remarkable of these cliffs is represented
by the cut (p. 320) called " Cape Horn." There is the train rounding
it, at a height well calculated to excite alarm, — the last place a rail-
way train would have been placed, even in the dreams of an enthu-
siast, twenty years ago. Some travellers claim that the grandest and
most exciting railway ride in the whole world is this from Summit to
Colfax. No language can describe the scenery. Timid souls shrink
and tremble, possibly, whirling around perilous curves, and rushing
forward on the edge of awful precipices. But the experience pays.
OVER TUNNEL AND LOOP.
The memory of the ride will be reckoned as an income during the
remainder of life.
Marvellous railway engineering, on the Sierra Nevada range, is
seen in the American River Canon, as reptesented by the cut on p. 321.
The grade of this road for seven miles is six hundred feet to the
mile — too steep, of course, to be operated by steam ; so it was built
to be operated by mules. Some of its curves are thirty degrees.
The whole of its work is the triumph of enterprise over stupendous
obstacles.
320
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
The Calumet Branch Railway of the Leadville division of the Rio
Grande is a marvellous affair, and the reader will be interested in
ROUNDING CAPE HORN.
the following description of it, by one who is perfectly familiar with
minutest details. He says : —
'* Nobody has ever well described the wonderful little feeder of the
Leadville division which modestly leaves the main line in Brown's
Canon, and ascends the mountain gulches to the east with the steep-
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
321
est grades and the heaviest curves in the world that are overcome
with the ordinary drive-wheel locomotive. Afar up in this range of
mountains, seven miles away, and nearly three thousand feet higher
than the bed of the canon, is the famous Calumet mine, from which
is extracted the hematite iron ore that keeps in blast the furnaces of
the Bessemer works at Pueblo. Every morning of the year a pon-
derous locomotive and a small train of cars toils up this steep, and
every afternoon they make the perilous descent to the valley, loaded
AMERICAN RIVER CANON
with iron, with the steam brakes on the cars, the water pressure on
the locomotive drivers, and a man standing at the brake-wheel of
each car.
" This is the most wonderful piece of railroading in the universe.
The maximum grade is four hundred and six feet to a mile, or nearly
eight per cent, and the maximum curvature, twenty-five degrees.
The terminal of the branch is half a mile higher than the commence-
ment. Imagine, then, the difficulty in ascending with empty cars,
and the danger of descending with loaded ones. Still, strange though
32? MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
it may seem, a locomotive cannot make the descent unless at least
five cars are attached. The latter are essential to provide the resist-
ing power for the steam brakes. The trip up is snalish ; the return
is rapid in spite of the steam pressure which cuts the car-wheels into
sparks that fly out in a constant stream from the brakes, in spite of
the reverse action, in spite of the lavish use of the sand-pipes, and in
spite of the water brake on the locomotive drive-wheels.
"■ Some few years ago, when the operation of the line was commenced,
runaway accidents were of almost daily occurrence. The seven miles
were within a brief period strewn with the wrecks of cars and loco-
motives and iron ore. The most discouraging results attended the
persistent efforts to make the line serve the purpose for which it was
constructed. Day after day control over the descending train would
be lost ; some defect would interfere with the working of the steam
brake ; and even with the brake in successful operation, the train
would take a crazy notion and go flying down the mountain sides,
along the brinks of fearful precipices, through the rock-bound gullies,
and around the acute curves like a bolt of lightning. The train hands
would leap for life, and the locomotive and cars would be dashed into
fragments. In all these accidents, however, nobody was hurt. Thou-
sands and thousands of dollars' worth of rolling stock is said to have
been destroyed before a successful system of operation was estab-
lished. Only very few of the higher officials of the Rio Grande real-
ize how terrible was the experience of these rides, and it is told of
two of them who once summed up sufficient curiosity and courage
to make the journey that they were so frightened that they hung on
to the steps of the caboose, expecting every moment to have to leap
for life.
*' Finally, extremely heavy locomotives were built, and a force of
exceptionally brave trainmen were secured. The latter were in-
structed to cling to their post at every hazard, and to never flinch in
the moment of danger. Not a serious accident has been recorded
since. Starting from the mine, every brake is manned, so that in
case the steam should fail, the train could be checked. While there
have been several runaways, in two years there has not been a wreck.
The sight of one of these trains descending is one of thrilling interest,
the sparks from the car-wheels cutting a pathway of light down
the mountains, which can best be described as having the appearance
of a molten stream of fire rolling down to the river-bed of the
canon.
'' In Switzerland there are grades as steep as these of the Calumet
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
323
Branch, but they are equipped for operation with the cable and cog-
wheels."
The leading railway companies in the New West support hospitals
for their employees. The cut below represents the Central Pacific
Railroad Hospital at Sacramento. It is a fine stone building, occu-
pying an open square, and was erected at an expense of sixty thou-
sand dollars. Here the sick or injured employee finds a pleasant
home, with the best of care, until he is restored, and is able to return
to work. The physician who has this hospital in charge stands at
the head of his profession in Sacramento, and he is provided with the
CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD HOSPITAL.
best of nurses, and other facilities to make a first-class hospital. A
monthly assessment of fifty cents each, from officers and men, begin-
ning with the president of the company, pays the current expenses
of the institution. This wise provision for the sick and suffering is
very popular with the men and their families. To them it is a pledge
of help in the time of need.
It is common, also, for the railroad companies of the New West
to provide reading-rooms for their employees. We have been fur-
nished with the following account of what the Atchison, Topeka &
Sante Fe Railroad has done in this line : —
"The Atchison, Topeka & Sante Fe Railroad Company has es-
324 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
tablished a rather extensive system of reading-rooms for the benefit
of their employees throughout Kansas and New Mexico. The rooms
are comfortably furnished, heated, lighted, and kept neat and clean
by the company. The company provides all the better periodicals
of the day, games, and mechanical reference books. It, however,
depends upon voluntary contributions of the citizens where these
rooms are located to supply a library. There are fifteen of them
located at the various division points. At Argentine, New Mexico,
quite a number of handsome volumes have been generously donated
by private citizens. At Emporia, Kan., the citizens have come for-
ward promptly, and a New York gentleman has donated one hundred
volumes to that reading-room. Topeka also has one. At Nickerson,
Kan., the people have responded very generously, as also at Dodge
City and Raton, Kan., while at Las Vegas a very fine collection of
books has been presented by the citizens. At San Marcial a collec-
tion of about two hundred volumes of the best standard literature
has been presented by the Hon. E. W. Kinsley, of Boston."
Railroading in the New West makes mammoth bridges a neces-
sity. The bridge over the Missouri River, at Omaha, is a great
work, both in conception and execution. It is one mile in length
including its approaches. It is "Post's Pattern." "The hollow iron
columns are twenty-two in number, two forming a pier. These-
columns are made of cast iron, one and three-fourths of an inch in
thickness, eight and a half feet in diameter, ten feet long, and weigh
eight tons each. They are bolted together air-tight, and sunk to the
bed-rock of the river, in one case, eighty-two feet below low water.
After these columns are seated on the rock foundation, they are filled
up twenty feet with stone concrete, and from the concrete to the
bridge seat they are filled with regular masonry. From high-water
mark to the bridge seat these columns measure fifty feet. The eleven
spans are two hundred and fifty feet in length, making the iron part
between abutments, two thousand seven hundred and fifty feet.
These columns were cast in Chicago, and delivered in the shape of
enormous rings, ten feet in length. When they were being placed
in position, the workmen would take two or more rings, join them
together, place the column where it was to be sunk, cover the top
with an air-lock, then force the water from the column by pneumatic
pressure, ranging from ten to thirty-five pounds per square inch.
The workmen descend the columns by means of rope ladders, and
fill sand-buckets, which are hoisted through the air-lock by a pony-
engine. The sand is then excavated about two feet below the bottom
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
325
of the column, the men come out through the air-lock, a leverage,
from one hundred to three hundred tons, is applied, the pneumatic
pressure is removed, and the column sinks, from three inches to two
and one-half feet — in one instance, the column steadily sank down
seventeen feet. Whenever the column sinks, the sand fills in from
ten to thirty feet — in one instance, forty feet. This has to be exca-
vated before another sinking of a few inches can take place, making
altogether a slow and tedious process."
326 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Congress authorized the building of this bridge, July 25, 1866,
but little was done upon it until March, 1868. Then work com-
menced in earnest, but was discontinued for some reason, after six-
teen months. Again, in April, 1870, the American Bridge Company
of Chicago took up the work ; but it was not carried to final consum-
mation until Congress authorized the Union Pacific Railroad, Feb.
24, 1 87 1, to complete it, and issue bonds to the amount of $2,500,000.
The Marent Gulch is in the Cariacan Defile, on the Northern
Pacific Railway, not far from the Flathead Reservation. The stream
flowing through it is small, but the gulch is deep and dismal. The
bridge over it, represented by the cut on page 325, is one of the high-
est in the United States. It is two hundred and twenty-six feet
high and eight hundred and sixty long. It is a Howe truss resting
on eight towers.
Near by this structure is another large bridge — the O'Keefe
bridge — one hundred and twelve feet high and one thousand feet
long.
The Northern Pacific Railway passes through Clark's Fork, where
not even a wagon-road existed before, nothing but a perilous bridle-
f)ath travelled by Indians, gold-seekers, and fur-traders. Pack-animals
could not travel over twelve or fifteen miles a day on this trail.
Clark's Fork is spanned by three mammoth bridges. The first is
a five-span Howe truss, eight hundred feet long, with trestle approach
of six hundred feet — fourteen hundred feet in all. Fifty miles fur-
ther up is another Howe truss bridge, of three spans, four hundred
and eighty feet long, and ninety feet above the water. The third
bridge is situated seven miles above the junction of the Flathead and
Missoula, and is ten hundred and fifty feet long, including approaches.
Smalley, in his '' History of the Northern Pacific Railroad," says :
'' In the rock-work Mr. Hallett employed a method new in railroad
construction, which he had first successfully used on the Columbia
River line. The old way of cutting a roadbed along the face of a cliff
was to begin at the top, drill small holes and blow off the rock, little
by little, down to grade. Mr. Hallett began at the bottom, a little
below grade, made a number of T-shaped tunnels, filled them with
great quantities of powder, and touched them all off at the same
moment by electricity. The effect was stupendous, the whole side
of the mountain wall being lifted up and hurled into the river. Great
saving in time and money was thus effected. A similar method was
applied to through cuts by means of perpendicular shafts and lateral
galleries. One cut twenty-four feet deep by four hundred feet long
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 12 J
was excavated by a single blast of giant powder, most of the rock
being thrown entirely out, and the rest so broken up that it was
readily removed by derricks."
The same authority tells us that the most stupendous land-slide
known in railroad-building occurred in this vicinity in April, 1883.
'' Forty acres, covered with trees, slid off into the river, carrying the
track with it, and partially obstructing the river."
The magnitude of business and enterprise in the New West also
creates the necessity for the largest ferry-boat in the whole world.
It is found on the Straits of Carquincy, in California, and is run
by the railway company to shorten the distance to Sacramento.
The Straits are one mile and a half wide.
Crofutt describes this monster ferry-boat as follows : "■ The '■ Solano '
is the same length as the 'City of Tokio,' and has the greatest length
of beam of any vessel afloat. Her dimensions are : length over all,
424 feet ; length of bottom, — she has no keel, — 406 feet ; height of
sides in centre, 18 feet 5 inches; height of sides at each end from
bottom of boat, 15 feet 10 inches; moulded beam, 64 feet; extreme
width over guards, 116 feet; width of guards at centre of boat, 25
feet 6 inches ; reverse shear of deck, 2 feet 6 inches. She has two verti-
cal steam engines of 60-inch bore and 11 -inch stroke. The engines
have a nominal horse-power each, but are capable of being worked up to
2,000 horse-power each. The wheels are 30 feet in diameter, and the
face of the baskets, 17 feet. There are 24 baskets in each wheel, 30
inches deep. She has eight steel boilers, each being of the following
dimensions : length over all, 28 feet ; diameter of shell, 7 feet ; 143
tubes, 16 feet long by 4 inches diameter each ; heating surface, 1,227
feet ; grate surface, 224 feet ; entire heating surface, 9,816 feet ; entire
grate surface, 1,792 feet. The boilers are made in pairs, with one
steam smoke-stack to each pair, 5 feet and 6 inches in diameter.
She has 4 iron fresh-water tanks, each 20 feet long and 6 feet in
diameter; registers 483,541.31 tons. She is a double ender, and at
each end has four balajice rudders, each 1 1 feet 6 inches long and 5 feet
6 inches in depth. They are constructed with coupling-rods, and each
has one king-pin in the centre for the purpose of holding it in place.
The rudders are worked by an hydraulic steering-gear, operated by an
independent steam pump, and responds almost instantaneously to
the touch. The engines are placed fore and aft, and operate entirely
independent, each operating one wheel. This arrangement of the
engines and paddles makes the boat more easily handled entering
or leaving the slips, or turning quickly when required, as one wheel
328
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
can be made to go ahead and the other to reverse at the same time.
One wheel is placed eight feet forward, and the other eight feet abaft
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 329
the centre of the boat. It has four tracks running from end to end,
with the capacity of 48 freight, or 24 passenger cars. In its construc-
tion, 1,500,000 feet of lumber were used. Many of the timbers are
over 100 feet long; four, the keelsons, are 117 feet long, each
measuring 4,032 feet."
PUBLIC BUILDINGS.
We turn to other illustrations of the marvellous enterprise of the
New West. Public buildings show the public spirit of the people.
Their thrifty business and large prosperity appear through these.
They proclaim the purpose, intelligence, and aim of those who build
and pay for them.
When the ground was broken for the railway at Omaha, the town
contained about three thousand inhabitants. The first '' claim cabin "
was built there in 1854. A young man said to the author, in August,
1883, in Omaha, *^ I am twenty-five years of age this month, and I was
one of the first babies born in this town, the population of which is
now sixty thousand!'
In 1884, the city expended tivo million dollars in public improve-
ments, and foiLT millio7t in public buildings. The aggregate sales, in
the same time, amounted to twenty-fonr million three Jnmd^'ed eighty-
two thousand eight hundred ninety-one dollars, — an increase of one
hundred and eighteen per cent in five years. The city has forty
churches, fourteen of which were erected in 1884, at a cost of one
hundred Jifty-eight tJiousand dollars. The same year, also, ten school-
buildings were erected, at an expense of 07ie Jiundred tzvo tho?isand
eight hundred eighty dollars. There are seven daily papers in
the city ; two of them published in the German language. Its ap-
propriations for public schools are generous and noble. It has over
seven hundred thousand dollars invested in school property. In
addition to public, there are several private schools, an institution for
the deaf and dumb, a commercial college, Creighton College, etc.
The first building which the traveller sees on approaching Omaha
is the high school, a costly and imposing structure. It is situated
on Capitol Hill, the highest point of land in the city, where the old
State-house stood. It is one hundred and seventy-six feet long and
eighty feet wide. The main spire rises one hundred and eighty-five
feet from the ground. It was completed in 1876, and cost two hun-
dred and fifty thousand dollars. It was but ten years after breaking
330
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING, OMAHA.
ground for the Union Pacific Railroad that this structure was reared.
The State Capitol was first located here, but was removed to Lincoln,
in 1868.
Such a noble structure for the education of the young tells its
own story. The community which demands such a building, at a
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
331
time when enormous taxes are levied upon its property, must set a
high value upon education. This edifice is a standing monument to
the praise and honor of the people, as well as proof of their enter-
prise and generosity.
The court-house covers an area of 112x130 feet, exclusive of
approaches and the grand staircase, on the Farnum Street front.
COURT-HOUSE.
The height of the building, from base to the statue over the dome, is
one hundred and forty feet. It is built of stone from the Berea sand-
stone quarries of Ohio, at a cost of $350,000. It is fire-proof. It is
provided with all the appointments of a first-class court-house in
the East.
It is a wise policy which erects a permanent public building for the
future as well as the present. Fifty years from now, and more, this
33^ MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
court-house will meet the wants of the public service, and, at the
same time, continue to be an ornament to the city. Instead of
grumbling at the large cost of the structure, posterity will honor the
memory of the builders all the more ; for it furnishes proof of their
earnest public spirit in the most enduring form.
Portland is one of the most stirring and thriving cities on the con-
tinent. Its population, including East Portland, is about forty thou-
sand. It is situated on the west bank of the Willamette River,
twelve miles from its junction with the Columbia. In beauty of
location and architecture, it is unsurpassed by any Eastern city.
The editor of the West Shore furnishes the following interesting
and instructive facts concerning its business : —
''In 1883 employment was given to 5,181 men, the product of
whose labor aggregated ^11,423,000 in value. Although in 1884
many forms of industry — which had been estimated beyond their
normal limit by the excessive demand during railroad construction —
returned to their natural condition, the value of manufactures was
nearly equal to that of 1883. The product was ^11,282,000, and
5,269 hands were employed. The reason of this was the founding
here of a number of new industries, considerably diversifying our
products. The leading industries are as follows : furniture, 410
hands; lumber and wood-working, 620; foundry and iron work, 520;
printing and publishing, 375 ; ship and boat building, 255 ; cloth-
ing, 350; brick-making, 120; carpentering, 300; boots and shoes,
150; carriage and wagon making, 130. The product for 1885 was
valued at $9,911,000, fully equal to 1884, when the shrinkage in
values is considered. Salmon-canning is one of the leading indus-
tries of Oregon. The scene of operation is the Columbia and As-
toria, the headquarters, where are located a majority of the facto-
ries. This industry gives employment to 1,500 boats, 3,000 fisher-
men, and 1,000 factory hands, and produces annually 600,000 cases
of salmon, valued at $3,000,000. The industry is of great benefit to
Portland in many ways."
As a shipping port for flour and grain, the same writer says, the
business "amounted in 1885 to 9,217,086 bushels of wheat, and
344,811 barrels of flour, equal to a total of 11,432,265 bushels of
wheat. . . . Not one acre in twenty of Eastern Washington is now
under cultivation, and the crop increases at such a ratio from year to
year that both the C. R. & N. Co. and Northern Pacific will be taxed to
their utmost capacity to move it two years hence. The quantity of wheat
produced will depend entirely upon the facilities for getting it to
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
'hn
market ; consequently the amount shipped from Portland will be regu-
lated by the transportation accommodations furnished. ... It is but
reasonable to expect that within a few years fifty million bushels of
wheat will be shipped from the Inland Empire, two-thirds of which,
at least, will find a market in this city. . . . The value of wheat ex-
HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING, PORTLAND.
ported from this city in 1885 was $4,319,203; of flour, 1^1,453,324.
To carry this, including salmon exports of $2,757,756, required 121
large vessels, having a total capacity of 120,963 tons. . . . Exports
to foreign countries for season of 1884-5 were $5,857,057. The total
domestic exports for the same period were $6,699,776, making a
grand total of foreign and domestic exports of the products of the
•rj4 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
region of ^12,556,833. This includes 11,121,433 pounds of wool,
2,106,971 pounds of hides, 5,333,207 pounds of hops, and 28,860,600
pounds of potatoes. The total exports for the calendar year 1885
were $14,280,670."
Portland is distinguished for its fine public edifices and business
blocks, on which money has not been spared to make them conven-
ient as well as ornamental. But none of its public buildings surpass
the new high school in beauty and costliness. It cost one hundred
and fifty thousand dollars, and is finished with all the modern appoint-
ments of a first-class institution. The six other school-houses of the
city are large and elegant, and would be a credit to any city in the
land. "The school census of 1885 showed 6,658 children between
the ages of four and twenty residing in the city, of which 570 attended
private schools. There were registered in the public schools 3,978,
the average number belonging being 3,084, and the average daily
attendance 2,971. Considering that many parents do not send their
childen to school until six years of age, and that a great many are
compelled to leave school and earn a livelihood long before they are
twenty, the above figures indicate that there are few children of proper
age not receiving the benefit of a free education."
The city is well supplied with newspapers and magazines of a high
order. The Orcgonian and Neivs are morning dailies with weekly
editions. The Standard^ Telegram, and Freie Presse are evening
dailies — six daily papers in all. There are from fifteen to twenty
othdr periodical publications, among which is The West SJiore, in-
ferior to no illustrated monthly in the United States for the place
it is designed to fill. We here and now acknowledge our great in-
debtedness to its able editor for a great amount of information, as
well as fine illustrations, in the preparation of this volume.
Portland, Oregon, contains many fine business blocks, one of which
is shown on p. 336. Forty-one years ago the first business house
of Portland was erected — a small log house.
In November, 1843, A- L. Lovejoy and A. M. Overton located
claims on the present site of Portland. In the fall of 1844 Over-
ton sold his interest to F. M. Pettygrove for $50 ; and during the
winter following a small log cabin was erected. These two men,
Lovejoy and Pettygrove, had an idea that the future city of Ore-
gon would be built upon the site which they had selected. So
in July, 1845, they laid off sixteen blocks near the river, making
the blocks two hundred feet square, and subdividing them into eight
lots fifty by one hundred feet each. Now they must name their
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
135
336
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
new town ; and Love joy, who was from Massachusetts, suggested
Boston. Pettygrove was from Maine, and he suggested Portland.
They drew lots to settle the question, and Pettygrove won. Hence
the name Portland. Before the next winter fairly set in they built
of hewn logs a modest little store.
Sometime thereafter both Lovejoy and Pettygrove sold out, the
latter receiving ;^5000 for his share for which he paid Overton $50.
Contrasting this very humble beginning with the present appearance
of the city, its growth and thrift are truly marvellous. The log store
THE KAMM BLOCK.
represents the fact a little more than forty years ago; the other views
presented represent the facts now. Between the two, what enter-
prise, industry, thought, labor, trials, and triumphs !
The State of Oregon contains about twelve times as many acres
as Massachusetts, and, in many particulars, its future prospects are
twelve times as great. In length, from east to west, it is three hun-
dred and fifty miles, and in width, two hundred and eighty miles,
embracing an area of 95,247 square miles, or, in round numbers, sixty-
one million acres. The business and enterprise of the inhabitants
are as large as the State. Proof of this is found in their public
buildings.
The State Capitol at Salem is worthy of any of the oldest eastern
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
337
commonwealths. It is a very substantial edifice, of ample propor-
tions, and both beautiful and imposing. The edifice not only speaks
for itself, but it speaks for the State, whose people take pride in
their ability to represent the highest type of civilization. The editor
of the Nezv West says, '' One of the deepest rooted and most erro-
neous impressions the East entertains of the West is that the towns
and cities are all new, illy constructed, poorly provided with the con-
veniences for health, comfort; and the transaction of business, socially
and morally below par, of a mushroom growth, and possessing those
peculiar characteristics which have always been associated with the
STATE HOUSE.
' frontier.' " One purpose we have in presenting these views of public
buildings to the reader is to correct such incorrect and absurd ideas
of the West.
The insane asylum is located at Salem, the capital. It is an ample
provision of the State for a very unfortunate class of its inhabitants.
The building is large and graceful, supplied with everything neces-
sary for the comfort and cure of the insane — a beautiful expression
of the philanthropic and benevolent spirit of the people.
Tacoma, Washington Territory, is the western terminus of the
Northern Pacific Railroad and the head of navigation on Puget Sound,
and therefore a place of much importance, especially since the construe-
338
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
tion of the Northern Pacific Railroad. In March, 1885, the editor of
the New West said : "In the vicinity of Tacoma, and on several islands
contiguous to the mainland, are large areas of splendid potter's clay.
A large quantity of machine-made brick are turned out by nine differ-
ent yards. Of these, fully five millions went into buildings in
Tacoma last year, while large quantities were sent to other markets.
. . . Tacoma is the county seat and the seaport to which all this
region is tributary. Not simply that, but it is the terminus of the
Northern Pacific, the point where that great transcontinental line
reaches the deep water of the Pacific. Here can come the varied
INSANE ASYLUM
products of the Inland Empire and the greater portion of Western
Washington for shipment, and from here those same regions, soon to
be wealthy and populous, can draw their supplies. Here, too, can
come the commerce of Asia and the Pacific for transmission across
the continent, while to the warehouse here the railroad can bring the
innumerable articles sent from the East to be distributed throughout
the northwest region."
The "Tacoma" is one of the largest and finest hotels in the
West north of San Francisco, a city of magnificent public houses. It
was erected in 1884 by the Tacoma Land Company at an expense of
$200,000, and has already won a reputation throughout the country.
It stands on an eminence above the water front, affording the guests
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
339
on the veranda such a view of water, valley, and mountain as few
ever enjoyed before. A visitor says of this hotel : ''The Tacoma, as
a homelike resort, is not an illy constructed idea of its projectors.
It is from the designs of a celebrated firm in New York City, and
built under its supervision. It is modeled from the domestic archi-
tecture of France and Holland of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen-
turies. The main lines of the building are similiar to the same lines
in the best of French work, and the gables are a reproduction of a
type found very frequently in Holland. The window and door fram-
ings and cornices are of selected hard-burned brick, and are attempts
at decorating what would otherwise be tame and flat, owing to the
THE TACOMA HOTEL.
necessity of covering all brick walls with cement in this, a damp cli-
mate, where the brick are very readily affected. The interior details
were studied with a view of making the house attractive as a home,
warm and rich in color, and with fine and delicate mouldings.
"The guest here, as he sits in the shade enjoying a temperature
which never rises higher than eighty degrees in the summer, is apt
to remember his friends at the seashore in the East, or at the interior
mountain resorts, and pity them."
Some of the finest business blocks north of San Francisco are
found here. The original wooden buildings are being rapidly re-
340 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
moved, and substantial brick ones take their places. In the city
there are ''336 distinct establishments or offices of professional men.
These are classified alphabetically as follows : architects, 4 ; auction
houses, 2 ; attorneys, 38 ; bakeries, 4 ; banks, 3 ; brick-yards, 3 ; boots
and shoes, 4; blacksmiths, 5 ; barbers, 10; bath-rooms, 3 ; builders, 7 ;
clothing and gents' furnishing, 3 ; car and machine shops, 2 ; cigar
stores, 13; Chinese stores, 7; Chinese laundries, 21; doctors, 24;
dairies, 4 ; dry goods, 7 ; dentists, 2 ; engineers and surveyors, 9 ;
express offices, 2; flouring mill, i; furniture dealers, 4; fruit and
provisions, 4 ; fish, 2 ; flour and feed, 4 ; foundry, i ; galvanized iron
works, I ; general merchandise, 2 ; groceries, 16; harness makers, 2;
hotels, 15; hardware, 3; insurance and real estate, 26; jewellers, 7;
livery stables, 3; lock and gunsmiths, 2; millinery stores, 4; meat
markets, 7 ; musical instruments, 3 ; marble works, i ; mining ex-
perts, 2 ; photographers, 2 ; paints, oils, and wall paper, 2 ; plumbers
and gas-fitters, 3 ; painters, 3 ; queen's-ware, wood, and willow ware, 3 ;
restaurants, 8 ; saloons, 25 ; saw and shingle mills, 7 ; sash and door
factories and planing mills, 5 ; salmon cannery, i ; stationery stores, 4 ;
stoves and tinware, 3 ; skating rinks, 2 ; ship carpenters and boat-
builders, 4 ; sewing machine agents, 3 ; ship chandlers, i ; tailors, 4 ;
toy stores, i ; tub and pail factory, i ; telegraph offices, 3 ; under-
takers, I ; wheelwri^rhts, 2 ; wasfon warerooms, i."
The St. Luke Memorial Church is a very fine edifice, built of
stone, at an expense of $30,000. It was a present to the Episcopal
Society from C. B. Wright, Esq., of Philadelphia, formerly president
of the Northern Pacific Railroad. His daughter, learning of the
struggles of the society to secure a place of worship, resolved to lay
aside money enough from her own funds to purchase a bell for them.
Before her purpose was accomplished, she sickened and died. One
of her last requests was, that her father should see that the bell was
supplied. The father responded by this magnificent present. A large
memorial window occupies nearly the entire width of the front of the
building. This is in memory of the deceased daughter. A marble
slab, suitably inscribed, is sunk in one of the walls to the right of the
chancel, in memory of Mrs. Wright.
Mr. Wright also endowed the ''Annie Wright Seminary" by the
gift of FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS, in memory of his accomplished
daughter. The building was paid for by subscriptions, and cost
$35,000. It is a beautiful structure, supplied with all the appli-
ances of the best academies in New England. The inhabitants of
Tacoma are justly proud of this institution, it is so much in harmony
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 34 1
with their intelHgent and cultivated taste. They greatly honor the
man, too, whose noble bequests have contributed so much to improve
and beautify their delightful town.
The citizens of Tacoma have been exceedingly generous in provid-
ing public schools. The Central School building is more costly and
elegant than the school buildings in New England towns of the size
of Tacoma. The grounds, building, and furniture cost ^30,000, which
speaks well for the enterprise and good sense of a people whom many
Eastern dwellers suppose live on the verge of civilization. The rapid
increase of the population enlarges the field of educational operations
from year to year, imposing heavier and heavier burdens upon the
taxpayers, who are not given to grumbling, however, since they fully
believe that the best invested property in the city is that which they
have put into churches and schools.
The deep interest of the inhabitants of the most distant parts of
the New West in public school, is manifest from such facts as the
following from the Adva7icc of Chicago, a few months since : —
'' On one of the thousand islands of Puget Sound, in the centre of
eight counties wholly destitute of any higher educational advantages,
and having a population of over 16,000, is a little community intensely
in earnest in this matter. The people of this island have recently
offered us a fine building, well adapted for academy purposes, and
twenty acres of land, provided we as a denomination will raise an
endowment of $10,000, with which to start the school. The money
with which to purchase the building is all subscribed, and bond for a
deed has been given. The property is worth at least $5,000, and not
one of the forty persons who subscribed for its purchase is a Congre-
gationalist ; and yet they say to us as a denomination, ' Take the
property and give our children the benefit of a good school, that they
may not grow up in ignorance.' "
Montana is a newer, if not a wilder country, than Oregon and
Washington ; and its progress has been unparalleled. To-day it can
boast the most promising mining camp in the world, — Butte City, —
called ''The Silver City," because of its rich and extensive silver
mines. It is claimed that Butte is in advance of Leadville, in several
particulars, and that the " hard times " which have struck almost
every other western town, have never visited this booming place.
Since the completion of the Utah and Northern Railroad, the town
has advanced from a population of five hundred to fifteen thousand,
including its environs. The citizens have been moved to true West-
ern generosity, not to say prodigality, in providing everything which
342
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
343
the business, educational, and moral interests of the city require.
Expensive water-works, the electric light, churches, schools, three
daily newspapers, with several weekly, telegraph, telephone, and all
the etceteras of a thriving Eastern city. Their large and numerous
business blocks and public buildings are the best possible proof of
the energy, tact, and enterprise, which have reared this and other
cities, within a few years, on the frontier. The ''howling wilder-
ness " is driven out of Montana.
COURT-HOUSE.
It has the appearance of a busy, bustling Eastern city, though
having more dash. The assessment value of its property aggregates
$ 8,000,000. It has eight churches, three banks, schoolhouses that
cost $75,000, gas-works, and all the other appointments of modern civ-
ilization, although it is so young and situated in the wilderness. The
editor of the West Shore says : " Law and order are supreme, life
and property are secure, and there, as elsewhere, he who behaves
himself will not be molested, while he who does not will probably
only be interfered with by the police. Socially, Butte contains as
large a proportion of educated and refined people as any manufactur-
344 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
ing city in the union, a statement to which its many fine churches
and schools bear ample witness."
The total bullion shipment from Butte, in 1885, amounted to
^5,000,000, and of copper matte, ^10,000,000, making a total of
$ 15,000,000.
The cost of the court-house was ^150,000, a necessary outlay to
meet the demands of the thriving county. It is a fitting monument
of the public spirit which pervades the communities on the Pacific
coast. They do nothing by halves. Their business is conducted on
a grand scale, nothing picayune about it. Here in Butte is the largest
smelter in the whole world. It contains over thirty furnaces, which
reduce one thousand tons of ore daily, producing one hundred and
fifty tons of copper, assaying sixty per cent copper. The machinery
is run by water power, though the furnaces consume over a hundred
cords of wood daily. The company made one contract for wood
amounting to $1,000,000 — three hundred thousand cords. This
copper mine, known as the Anaconda, is the richest copper mine in
America.
As large a per cent of the population attend meeting on the Sab-
bath as attend in a manufacturing village of New England. Their
neat and attractive houses of worship show that the citizens place a
high estimate upon Christian institutions. The leaders of thought
and enterprise appear to understand that their employes need the
Sabbath for physical rest and recuperation, as well as for moral im-
provement. Hence, this generous provision for the moral and spirit-
ual welfare of the masses.
Their public schools are provided with modern improvements,
and the teachers employed are among the best whom large pay can
secure from the East. In thoroughness of instruction and discipline,
the schools of Montana, at least in its leading cities, like Butte,
Helena, Deer Lodge, etc., are not inferior to those of Massachusetts.
In no part of our country are the people more fully imbued with the
idea that permanency of government depends upon the intelligence
as well as morals of the governed, than are the inhabitants of the
New West. Of course, there is a large class who give no attention
to these matters, and doubtless undervalue them ; but we speak of
the ruling classes, who make the West what it is, and is to be.
A writer says : '' Helena, by reason of her own valuable mines,
and her favorable situation in regard to other mining camps, became
the great mining and commercial centre ; by accumulation of wealth,
in the hands of shrewd, capable, and energetic men who knew how to
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE, /I {5
use money to conquer fortune, she acquired complete financial suprem-
acy ; and finally, her political influence and commanding situation,
gave her the seat of government of the Territory. All of these ad-
vantages she still retains, and they will in a few years, when the
railroad system of Montana is more fully developed, give her ten
times the population and influence she has now, for then Helena
will become the railroad centre of this vast region. These are the
reasons why she is the political, financial, and commercial capital
of' Montana, and why she is proudly and lovingly called by all her citi-
zens, 'The Queen of the Mountains.' "
To the general reader, Idaho seems to belong to the outside world
far more than Montana. Nevertheless, it is one of the fair, bright
spots of the New West, which modern civilization is rapidly trans-
forming into a country worthy of its beautiful name. From a histor-
ical statement prepared for the New Orleans Exposition by the
Territorial Comptroller, we extract the following account of the ori-
gin of its name, which will be read with interest : —
" Idaho is generally supposed to be a corruption of an Indian word
meaning ' Gem of the Mountains.' This, however, is disputed. The
poet Joaquin Miller, writes as follows on the subject : —
'' * The distinction of naming Idaho certainly belongs to my old
friend Colonel Craig (since deceased) of Craig's Mountain, Nez Perce
County. As for some fellow naming it in Congress — bah ! The
name was familiar in five thousand men's mouths as they wallowed
through the snow in 1861, on the way to Oro Fino mines, long before
Congress, or any man of Congress, had even heard of the new dis-
covery.
" '■ The facts are these : I was riding pony express at the time
rumors reached us, through the Nez Perce Indians, that gold was to
be found on the head waters and tributaries of the Salmon River. I
had lived with the Indians ; and Colonel Craig, who had spent most
of his life with them, often talked with me about possible discoveries
in the mountains to the right, as we rode to Oro Fino, and of what
the Indians said of the then unknown region. Gallop your horse, as
I have a hundred times, against the rising sun. As you climb the
Sweetwater Mountains, far away to your right, you will see the name
of Idaho written on the mountain-top, — at least, you will see a peculiar
and beautiful light at sunrise, a sort of diadem on two grand clusters
of mountains that bear away under the clouds fifty miles distant. I
called Colonel Craig's attention to this peculiar and beautifully arched
light. *'That," said he, "is what the Indians call E-dah-hoe, which
34^ MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
means the light, or diadem, on the line of the mountains." That was
the first time I ever heard the name. Later, in September, 1861,
when I rode into the newly discovered camp to establish an express
office, I took with me an Indian from Lapwai. We followed an
Indian trail, crossed Craig's Mountains, then Camas Prairie, and had
all the time E-dah-hoe Mount for our objective point.
*' ' On my return to Lewiston I wrote a letter containing a brief
account of our trip and of the mines, and it was published in one of
the Oregon papers, which one I have now forgotten. In that account
I often mentioned E-dah-hoe, but spelt it Idaho, leaving the pronun-
ciation unmarked by any diacritical signs. So that, perhaps, I may
have been the first to give it its present spelling, but I certainly did
not originate the word.'
"A writer in the Neiv West apparently well informed, declares that
Idaho is not a Nez Perce word, adding: 'The mountains that Joaquin
Miller speaks of may be named with a somewhat similar appellation,
but most likely the whole story grows out of the fertile imagination of
the poet. Idaho Springs, in Colorado, were known long before Idaho
Territory was organized. The various Territories at their organiza-
tion should have been given some appropriate local name. Colorado
was named after the river of that name, though it is not within its
boundaries. It should have been called Idaho. It was the name
first placed in the bill organizing it, but which was afterward changed.'
"William H. Wallace, the delegate to Congress from Washington
Territory, who introduced the bill making a new territory out of the
eastern portion of Washington, pleased with the beauty of the name
of Idaho, suggested it as an appropriate one.
'' Ex-Senator Nesmith of Oregon gives still another account :
'The bill first passed the House of Representatives designating the
present Territory of Idaho as " Montana," when it came up for con-
sideration in the Senate on the 3d of March, 1863. Senator Wilson
of Massachusetts moved to strike out the word ''Montana" and insert
" Idaho." Mr. Harding of Oregon said : " I think the name ' Idaho '
is preferable to 'Montana.'" Idaho in English signifies "the Gem
of the Mountains." I heard others suggest that it meant in the
Indian tongue " Shining Mountains," all of which are synonymous.
I do not know from which of the Indian tongues the two words
" Ida-ho " come. I think, however, if you will pursue the inquiry
among those familiar with the Nez Perce, Shoshone, and Flat Head
tribes, that you will find the origin of the two words as I have given
it above.' "
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISt..
347
Boise City was two hundred and fifty miles from the nearest rail-
road station until three years ago, and could be reached only by a
long and wearisome journey by stage or team for days and nights.
To travellers it was a desolate region, through which they journeyed to
reach the little thrifty city which pluck and enterprise had reared at
the mouth of Boise River, from which its name was derived.
The business part of the town is built of brick and stone, a city
ordinance prohibiting the erection of wooden buildings. A business
of more than $200,000 monthly is done by the citizens. There are
three excellent hotels, more than twenty stores of all kinds, and
BOISE CITY.
three newspapers, — two of them weekly, and the other tri-weekly.
The streets are wide, and so shaded with trees as to appear beautiful
beyond comparison. Hence the name by which the place is known,
— ''Wooded City."
One of the writers already quoted says : ''There is land enough in
the neighborhood for all who choose to come. The history of the
past twenty years of this valley shows what energy and determina-
tion can accomplish in the face of almost insuperable obstacles.
With these obstacles now removed, and with the valley easily accessi-
ble by rail to the immigrant seeking a home and the capitalist an in-
vestment for his money, the growth of the next few years must be far
greater and more marked than at any period in the past. Boise valley
348
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
||llllluilli!i||lliiiiiiimim|im||||ii|i||ii|ii|iiiHiiimi(iiii{i|i|iiiiniiiiii:i in i a niiii
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
349
proper is about sixty miles long and from two to six wide, containing
two hundred thousand acres of good arable land. Wherever this
has been brought under cultivation by means of irrigating ditches,
the most wonderful results have been obtained."
In the centre of the cut opposite the capitol is seen. This ele-
gant structure was erected at a cost of eighty tJioiisand dollars!
On the right is the court-house, which cost ^70,000. On the left of
CENTRAL SCHOOL BUILDING.
the capitol is a public-school building, four stories high with mansard
roof. It is a brick structure, eighty-two by one hundred feet, and
cost $50,000. One who knows says: "The school system is the
pride of the city. It is thoroughly graded, has a principal and six
assistant teachers, and is in such high favor, and does its work so
satisfactorily that no private schools are maintained, though there are
more than seven hundred children of school age in the district.
3 so
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Many families from a distance reside in the city for the purpose of
giving their children those excellent educational advantages."
Such a place in far-away Idaho, where a few years ago the adven-
turer would go to be scalped, but
not to be educated ! A marvel, ~~ ^~
indeed, is such a change.
There was but one house in
Cheyenne, Wyoming, on the
fourth day of July, 1867. In the
spring of 1 869 there were six thou-
sand inhabitants. The construc-
tion of the Union Pacific Railroad awaKcned latent powers of progress
and set all of its machinery in motion. This population of six
thousand embraced scores of irresponsible men, who moved forward
with the road, leaving the more substantial element to build up
an orderly and thriving town. Still, Cheyenne suffered for a time
by the presence and depredations of "roughs," who frequented
gambling hells and dance halls, until the best citizens, satisfied that
On Line of U P. Railroad
FIRST CAPITOL OF KANSAS.
==i^,: / __
<
-:_^.,._-. -^^i-is
-'^ ^~^^^^^^**^*^^Hi| -^^HBir ^W^'^^n"^
— iii^^ffl
^9
|E
ffllHlP^IIHr^^ i^^^^
^^^^mHIIIIII
H||||
B
piili 1 1 .[ipi^w^^^^^^^B
m^SpK^l^jf^^^^t
iwHI
ME
i^iiwyiftiiiil^^^l^S'^^^^^^
^^^^jyiBiMHB
H^
mm
^^ygg^gl^^^^^^^ ^:tvv^
^^^^
■
m
M^^^^M
LAST CAPITOL.
stringent measures only would relieve the town of this vicious class,
rose in their might and appointed a vigilance committee, who suspen-
ded several of the most desperate fellows by the neck from trees or
other elevations. Their accomplices made a personal application of the
hint, and departed for ** parts unknown," from which time Cheyenne
has been one of the most quiet and flourishing young cities on the
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
351
line of the Union Pacific Railroad. We show, on page 349, one of
its three fine schoolhouses.
The growth and enterprise of Cheyenne were not dependent upon
the discovery of gold mines, as was the case with Leadville and other
mining towns ; but it was the outgrowth of that western public spirit,
which found occasion for development in the construction of the
Union Pacific Railroad. There are many other towns of equal thrift
which have sprung up in the same way, leading the best New England
communities now in magnitude of business, the excellence of their
schools, and the general progress of public affairs. But for our
limited space we should make special mention of other towns.
Public enterprise in Kansas is of a high order. The effect of it is
seen in every department of social and public life. It pushes agricul-
ture, manufactures, the mechanic arts, science, learning, and religion.
The public buildings of no State in the Union are more expressive
of enterprise than those of Kansas.
We are able to furnish the reader
with a correct illustration of the
first and last capitol of the State
(P- 350).
The last capitol is not quite
completed at this time of writing ;
but the cut shows that the finished
structure will be imposing and ele-
gant.
At Gunnison city, on the Pacific
Slope, where there were but six or
eight cabins in the spring of 1880,
we found a population of three
thousand in the autumn of 1883, with a system of graded schools,
including high school and superintendent of public schools. The
town had sixty thousand dollars invested in school property at that
time. Three years seemed to be ample time for this thriving, driv-
ing community to accomplish what would require ten years to do in
New England. The following cut represents the best hotel of the
city, built and furnished at a cost of two hundred and fifty thou-
sand DOLLARS.
One who knows sends us the following : —
"At the confluence of the Gunnison and Tomichi rivers, on the
western slope of the Rocky Mountains, there is a broad level vallev,
surrounded by mountains which present the most beautiful and pic-
GUNNISON IN 1879.
352
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
turesque autumnal landscapes imaginable. On the side of one of
these mountains in bold relief is outlined the profile of a human
head, and legend tells us that the Indians used to make annual visits
to this valley to worship the Great Spirit. In 1879 ^^^ habitations of
this valley consisted of the little log-cabin shown in the illustration,
and a few tents ; but about this time the reports of the fabulous min-
eral wealth of the great Gunnison country began to be noised abroad,
and soon the mountains were filled with a fickle horde of fortune-
hunters, and mining towns with populations of one to three thousand
sprang up in a few months. This beautiful valley seemed the natural
LA VETA HOTEL, GUNNISON.
place for the 'Gate City' of this great Eldorado, and in March, 1880,
Gunnison was incorporated with forty voters. By the middle of 1881
her population had grown to over five thousand ; the Denver & Rio
Grande Railway had gotten into the country and began to develop the
vast coal fields near by.
*' The superior quality of this fuel, and the abundant resources of all
other essentials, in such close proximity to Gunnison, soon attracted
the attention of capitalists, and convinced them that there must, ere
long, flourish one of the greatest manufacturing cities in the West.
This faith led to large permanent investments which have put Gun-
nison beyond the uncertainties of most Western towns.
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 353
*' Prominent among these investments may be noted that of a com-
pany of wealthy St. Louis gentlemen, who, through their efficient man-
ager, Mr. D. J. McCanne, expended, during the year 1882, nearly half
a million dollars in the erection of fine water and gas works, and the
palatial La Veta Hotel. To the nerve and enterprise of these men
in making these magnificent improvements, much of Gunnison's future
depends. These same gentlemen have since invested a quarter of a
million in the erection and operation of large reduction works there,
which are now in successful operation.
"■ Gunnison has lost a large portion of her shiftless floating popu-
lation, but retains most all her substantial citizens, who are so
attached to her climate, her fine schools, and her refined cultured
society, that they could not be long satisfied away from her. The
wealth and permanency of her resources are now being rapidly devel-
oped, and within a few years she will become a prominent city of the
western slope. To the capitalist, the sportsman, the pleasure-seeker,
or the invalid, Gunnison's attractions are rare."
The same correspondent also writes : —
"Among the many wonderful resources of the great Gunnison
country, there are none that excite a livelier interest, from a commer-
cial standpoint, than the wonderful deposits of coal and iron ore
which are found there.
''About forty miles east of Gunnison are found several fine de-
posits of hematite iron ore, one of which has been developed to a
depth of fifty-three feet, showing solid iron of remarkable purity, car-
rying 69 per cent metallic iron, 2.30 per cent silica, o. 116 per cent
sulphur, and 0.008 phosphorus.
"Within thirty miles of Gunnison, in the same direction, is found
a deposit of manganese ore, of which Regis Chauvenet & Brother,
metallurgists and chemists, of St, Louis, Mo., say : ' We consider
this an excellent ore for the manufacture of " spiegel " iron, since it
yields iron 27.47, and manganese 17.90, This is a ratio which will
yield a high "spiegel," probably 1.30 per cent of manganese; audit
is well known that no artificial mixture will work as well as an ore
with the proper ratio of the two metals. The low phosphorus, 0.059,
is especially noteworthy.'
"The most wonderful deposit of iron ore in the West, is found
about twenty-five miles southwest of Gunnison, on the proposed rail-
road route from Gunnison to Lake City. After a careful survey of
this territory, a prominent iron manufacturer of St. Louis expressed
his belief that there is more iron there, within a radius of five miles,
354 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
than there is in the State of Missouri, and that the facilities for man-
ufacturing it cheaply would place this iron in competition with east-
ern and southern iron as far east as the Missouri River, and exclude
all other iron west of the Rocky Mountains, to the Pacific coast.
**The great variety of ores found in this district, comprising hem-
atite, specular, magnetic, black oxide and manganese ores, all high in
metallic iron, and remarkably free from silica, sulphur, and phospho-
rus, and the easy access and facilities for cheap mining and transpor-
tation, and the close proximity of abundance of the best fuel, makes
this one of the most attractive iron deposits to be found in the United
States.
'' Underlying Mount Carbon and Mount Wheatstone, fifteen to
thirty miles north of Gunnison, and covering an area of over three
hundred thousand acres, are five seams of as fine bituminous coal as
can be found in the United States. These seams vary from three to
ten feet in thickness, and aggregate thirty feet ; they are opened,
and most of them are extensively developed. Two of these seams,
one ten and the other six feet in thickness, make coke of the finest
quality, yielding 90.71 per cent fixed carbon, 'i.^j per cent ash, and
0.37 per cent sulphur. The coke yield of this coal is 75.76 per cent
of the weight of the coal. This coking coal is also an exceptionally
fine gas coal. Mr. D. J. McCanne, superintendent of the Gunnison
Gas and Water Company, is authority for the statement that his
yield from this coal, used alone, is nearly six feet of sixteen-candle
gas per pound of coal.
"The other seams yield an average of 55 per cent fixed car-
bon, 33 per cent volatile matter, and 4 per cent ash. One of these
seams has been covered with a lava capping, the heat and pressure of
which has converted it into a semi-anthracite, rendering it peculiarly
adapted to iron manufacture in its raw state. This coal, covering an
area of over six hundred acres, lies within fifteen miles of Gunnison.
'' Lying further north, a distance of twenty-five to forty miles
from Gunnison, is a large area where these same coal measures have
been broken up and subjected to heat, leaving here and there, large
deposits of anthracite coal of very superior quality, yielding 98.76 per
cent fixed carbon and 2.27 per cent ash. This anthracite, so far as
now developed, covers an area of about ten thousand acres ; but there
is little doubt that systematic drilling will develop all the other seams,
as only two of the five are so far discovered.
"These coal lands are all accessible by rail and have been exten-
sively developed. There was shipped during the year 1886, fifty-one
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 355
thousand tons of bituminous coal, thirty-two thousand tons of coke.,
and eighteen thousand tons of anthracite.
" Still farther north, but less accessible, are found more wonderful
deposits of coal, — anthracite, bituminous, and coking, some of the
seams being sixteen feet in thickness. A large body of this coal is
held by the Cunard Steamship Company ; other syndicates control
large tracts.
" But the great bulk of this coal and iron land is yet held by the
original locators, and can be secured at a small advance above the
government price, which is twenty dollars per acre."
The most marvellous growth of modern times, however, is the city
of Denver, Colorado. In 1858 there were only a few tents and huts
on the spot where the city now stands. Less than fifty people were
there through the winter of 1858-59, drawn thither by the discovery
of gold. A barren waste was all that met the vision in every direc-
tion at that time; for it was the ''Great American Desert," which
spread out from the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains, — the
home of the buffalo and the hunting-ground of the Indian. At the
banquet of '' Pioneers " in Denver, Sept. 13, 1883, — an association
of men who settled in Colorado previous to 1861, — Governor Steele,
who was one of the members, said : —
*' I landed in Denver on the 4th of May, 1859. There was noth-
ing but tents and cabins about here. We had fought our way against
the current that had turned back, who told us the country was a bar-
ren land ; that we would starve to death ; that Green Russell had not
found anything ; and that the reports we had heard were lies. We
dared not oppose them, nor declare that we intended to come on to
the end, because they were so determined not to allow any one to
sacrifice himself, as they called it, that they were ready to mob and
hang us if we did not yield. We had to steal away from them in
order to go on."
No persons are more amazed over the growth of Denver, and,
indeed, the whole New West, than the '' Fifty-niners " (as they have
been called), who struck fortunes when they struck the junction of
Platte River and Cherry Creek.
What do we see now where these pioneers pitched their tents or
reared their humble cabins } The largest, richest, and most beautiful
city of its age on earth, — a sparkling, costly jewel on the bosom of
the "desert." Where less than fifty people wintered in 1858-59,
seventy-five tJioiisand now dwell, — as intelligent, enterprising, and
generous a population as can be found in New England. The city is
356
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
handsomely laid out, with wide avenues lined with shade-trees, and
beautified with irrigating rivulets ; large and costly warehouses and
public buildings ; street-cars ; the electric light ; water-works ; ele-
gant churches ; newspapers, and schools unsurpassed by those of
Boston ; telegraph, telephone, and railway facilities ; in short, every-
thing necessary to promote the growth of a marvellous city, which
may contain, in twenty years, a population of two hundred thousand.
" Beautiful for situation " is Denver, though founded on a '' desert " ;
for that ''desert" has been made ''to blossom as the rose." The
Rocky Mountains rise grandly to view along the entire western hori-
zon. The vision takes in the snow-capped summits for one hundred
and fifty miles. On the north, " Long's Peak" lifts its tall form, and
to the south, Pike's Peak towers skyward, with the "snowy range" be-
tween, presenting a landscape which challenges brush and pencil.
The business of the city is immense. The last Report of the
Chamber of Commerce shows that the business of 1886 amounted to
($67,725,256.05) sixty -seven million seven hnndr'ed thirty-Jive tJion-
sand two Jinndred fifty-six dollai^s and five cents. The receipts of the
post-office for the same time, including money-order receipts, were
($4,455,007.72) fonr million fonr hniidred fifty-five thousand seven
dollars and seventy-two cents. Net income to the government
($86,518.93) eighty-six thousand five himdi-ed eighteen dollars and
ninety-three cents. The "money-order receipts" amounted to more
than tzvo million dollars.
The report contains the following respecting the banks of the
city, showing remarkable solidity of financial institutions : —
DATES.
CASH.
LOANS.
CAPITAL.
DEPOSITS.
December 20, 1884 . . .
March 10, 1885
May I, 1885
July I, 1885
October i, 1885
December 24, 1885 . . .
$4,486,694
4,616,643
4,553,009
4,561,410
5,275,262
5,249,344
$4,803,825
5,185,205
5,485,519
5.607,555
5,854,366
5,979,604
$2,070,076
2,083,419
2,077,847
2,086,664
2,096,490
2,139,649
$2,220,470
7,714,454
7,960,710
8,082,324
9,033,145
9,089,324
...
Gain from Dec. 20, '84,
to Dec. 24, 1885 .. .
Percentage of Gain . . .
$762,650
17
t
^i, 175*779 •••
... 24K
^69,563
3X
$1,868,854
26
December 24, 1885 . . .
March i, 1886
$5,249,344
5.381,376
...
$5,979,604! . . .
6,319,090 . . .
$2,139,649
2,125,570
$9,089,324
9,574,919
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
357
DATES.
CASH.
LOANS.
CAPITAL.
DEPOSITS.
June 3, 1886
August 27, 1886
October 7, 1886
December 28, 1886. . .
^5,483,378
6,055,901
6,071,305
5^641,565
$6,834,821
7,115,760
7,292,183
7.544,694
$2,195,044
2,187,392
2,209,723
2,296,575
...
10,123,179
10,984,294
",153,787
10,889,715
Gain from Dec. 24, '85,
to Dec. 28, 1886 .. .
Percentage of Gain . . .
$392,221
7
$1,565,090
26
$156,926
7
$1,800,391
20
The returns of the " Denver Clearing House" for 1886, aggregate
almost eighty-six million dollars.
We have spoken of Denver as the wealthiest city of its size in the
v^orld. Mr. M. G. Mulhall, the celebrated Irish statistician, has re-
cently published the following in the No rlk American Reviezv : —
"In 1830, Great Britain had a population of 24,000,000, and capi-
tal amounting to $16,890,000,000; in 1850, 27,200,000 population,
and $25,800,000,000 capital; in 1870, 31,300,000 population, and
$35,400,000,000 capital ; in 1884, 36,200,000 population, and $45,300,-
000,000 capital. France had, in 1830, 32,100,000 population, and
$10,659,000,000 capital; in 1850, 35,700,000 population, and $15,-
850,000,000 capital; in 1870, 37,800,000 population, and $26,200,-
000,000 capital ; in 1884, 38,200,000 population, and $41,200,000,000
capital. The United States had, in 1830, 12,900,000 population,
capital not given ; in 1850, 23,200,000 population, and $8,430,000,000
capital; in 1870, 38,600,000 population, and $35,370,000,000 capital ;
in 1884, 55,500,000 population, and $51,670,000,000 capital. That
is, in fifty-four years Great Britain has almost trebled her wealth,
France has nearly quadrupled hers, and the United States has seen
its capital multiply more than sixfold."
We quote these facts for the purpose of saying that Denver has
far outstripped even the ''sixfold" growth of the United States in
fifty-four years. In half that time it has advanced from nothing to
forty millions I
Broadway, New York City, does not present more enterprise, sta-
bility, and rush, than we behold in Larimer Street, bating the differ-
ence in magnitude. Eastern solidity, tact, and forethought seem to
be mixed up with Western dash, in about equal parts. The result is
a bustling, thriving, inspiring scene. It is worthy of note, as proof
of marvellous progress, that twenty-seven years ago, where Larimer
358
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Street crosses Cherry Creek, two flattened pine logs with a rough
board raiUng, formed a foot-bridge from bank to bank ; and at this
point, a flour barrel sunk supplied the inhabitants with water. This
slight convenience for supplying water, contrasted with the present
water-works in the city and one hundred and fifty artesian wells,
exhibits a change almost incredible.
A pictorial representation of such a city will furnish a better idea
of the character of its people and business than any verbal descrip-
tion. The first object which surprises the tourist on reaching Denver
is the '' Union Depot."
UNION DEPOT.
The Union Depot is a magnificent structure, — substantial, com-
modious, and elegant. It stands at the foot of Seventeenth Street,
and is five hundred and three feet long and sixty-nine feet wide. A
tower adorns the centre of the building, rising gracefully to the
height of one hundred and sixty-five feet. It is built of Colorado
stone, with the exception of the pillars of the arches.
On the ground floor, at the west end, is the baggage-room, ninety
by sixty-two feet in size, provided with every modern improvement
for handling baggage. On this floor, too, are two spacious waiting-
rooms for ladies and gentlemen, large dining-hall, ticket office, Pull-
man ticket office, express offices, barber shop, etc.
The second floor contains fifty-six offices, occupied chiefly by the
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
359
Union Pacific Railway Company and the Denver and Rio Grande
Railway Company for the transaction of their immense business.
The building is heated by steam, three large boilers in the base-
ment doing the work, and, at the same time, pumping water to all
parts of it. It is lighted by gas and the electric light. An artesian
well, sunk at an expense of tln^ee thousand dollars, supplies the depot
with one hundred and thirty thousand gallons of water every twenty-
four hours.
Beautiful grounds and driveways surround the building, adorned
with fine shade-trees and four fountains, adding an indescribable
charm to the spot. The
depot cost five hundred
iJionsand dollars. It is es-
timated that five hi^indred
tJiousand passengers came
in or went out of this depot
in 1885. In the same time
one hundred and ninety
thousand piece's of bag-
gage were handled. All
this, where less than thirty
years ago there was naught
but a desert waste !
A Denver newspaper
says: ''As a sample how
Denver men travel to dis-
tant and divergent points,
a recent day's sale of tick-
ets at the city office of
the Union Pacific were
aptly illustrative. Agent C. H. Olmsted sold tickets to Califor-
nia, Florida, New York, Alaska, England, and Sweden. He also
had inquiry for a ticket, which will probably soon be called for,
via San Francisco, China, Suez Canal, and England to New York
City. Alaska is a distant portion of the United States, and yet, by
taking emigrant railway and steerage steamship rates, the journey
can be made for seventy-five dollars, while first-class fare costs
only one hundred and twenty-eight dollars. To Sweden the cheap
rate is sixty-four dollars and seventy-five cents, but coming this way
to Denver only forty-seven dollars, while first-class fare is about one
hundred and ten dollars. An agent of a city ticket-office here is
FIRST CAPITOL OF COLORADO.
36o
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
obliged to keep a globe handy for reference to study out the lines of
travel desired by residents of Denver."
The State House of Colorado, situated on Capitol Hill, Denver,
will be one of the finest structures of the kind in the United States
when it is completed. It will cost 07ie million dollars. The building
is two hundred and ninety-five feet long, exclusive of portico or steps ;
its depth at the centre is one hundred and ninety-two feet, and its
height is three hundred and twenty-six feet, one-third higher than
LAST CAPITOL OF COLORADO.
Bunker Hill Monument. It is surmounted by a statue of Colorado.
The statute under which the splendid edifice is reared allows the
builder four years in which to do his work, or until Jan. i, 1890.
One thousand car-loads of cut stone, eleven million brick, and four
million pounds of iron will be wrought into the structure. The roof
will be covered with half-inch slate fastened by brass screws and
bedded in concrete. Every window will be of plate-glass, and the
interior will be finished in hard wood.
This very brief description of the Capitol, together with the above
illustration of it, will enable the reader to appreciate its beauty and
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
361
grandeur, compared with the first Capitol. Standing as it does upon
an eminence that overlooks the city, its effect upon the traveller
approaching the metropolis is inspiring. It is a crown of glory to
Denver ; and it will proclaim to future generations of Coloradoians
the noble aim and enterprise of the present.
The nine lots on which the Tabor Grand Opera House is erected
cost about sixty tJioiisaud dollars, which is pretty well for so small a
slice of the '' American Desert." The building has a frontage on Cur-
tis Street of two hundred and twenty-five, and one hundred and
twenty-five feet on Sixteenth Street. It is in the Queen Anne
style of architecture, five stories high, with finished basement.
The material is Golden pressed brick and Manitou white sand-
stone trimmings. The partition walls are all of brick. The man-
sard roof is covered with slate, and the cornice and trimmings of
galvanized iron. The building is
surmounted with three towers, the
main one at the corner of Six-
teenth and Curtis Streets. The
^■•.eight of the grand tower, from
the pavement to the top of the
finial, is one hundred and fifty feet.
On the Curtis Street front, at the
third story, are three stone balco-
nies of ornamental design. The
windows are very numerous, and
are of the twin or triple order.
Two large rooms on the ground
floor, each twenty-five feet wide, and one hundred feet deep, are
occupied by the post-office. Each story above contains one hun-
dred and twenty-five rooms, all en suite. To these three stairways
lead. The Opera House is in the west corner of the building.
The first object that attracts attention at the main entrance is
the great white marble step. Standing on this, immediately over-
head, is a stone portico two stories in height, of very ornamental
design, supported by two gray granite pillars, two feet six inches in
diameter, and twenty-eight feet high. The capitals of these pillars
are elaborately carved. The entrance proper is a great archway of
Manitou stone, eighteen feet wide and twenty-eight feet high, sup-
ported on granite pilasters. Passing through the immense folding-
doors, the hallway is reached, which is twenty-four feet wide, and
fifty-four feet deep. The floor of the hall is paved with Minton tile,
TABOR GRAND OPERA HOUSE.
362 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
diamond in shape, and of divers colors. The walls are wainscoted
in alternate panels of white and gray marble, the ceiling is beauti-
fully frescoed, and the walls above the wainscoting finely decorated.
We have not space to describe the beauty and elegance of the inte-
rior construction, and can only add that the building is supplied with
artesian water. The building cost eight hundred and fifty thousand
dollars.
WINDSOR HOTEL.
This i,s a magnificent structure, — the finest hotel in Denver, —
opened in the summer of 1881. It cost, including land, three hun-
dred and fifty thousand dollars. It is located on the corner of Lari-
mer and Eighteenth Streets. The building covers a space of two
hundred by one hundred and twenty-five feet, with a court thirty-
seven by ninety-four feet in centre, lighting and above the basement,
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 363
which latter is devoted to airing the interior rooms. There are five
floors, the steam, washing, and general storage departments. The
main entrance is in the centre on Larimer Street, with the ladies'
entrance on Eighteenth Street. There are eight single stores and
one large double corner store on the ground floor, besides a reading-
room and a barber shop, all opening into the corridors of the hotel, in
addition to the street entrances. The public oflice, with coat rooms
and lavatory, are in the centre, with the billiard and bar rooms ad-
joining. The grand dining-room, forty-four by eighty-four feet ;
ladies' ordinary, thirty-seven by sixty-two feet ; club room ; nurses' and
children's dining room, twenty by forty feet ; with the three public
parlors and guests' private rooms on the two fronts, are on the second
floor. There are about sixty rooms on each of the floors above, mak-
ing in all about two hundred and twenty-five rooms, aside from the
public rooms, singly and en suite, with mantels and wash-bowls, and
those fronting on the two streets have private bath-rooms attached.
There are two easy and commodious landing staircases in addition to
the private and servants' stairways. The corridors, extending
entirely around the building, are wide and well lighted.
An Otis steam passenger elevator, with every known safety device
and appliance, completes the appointments of a public house second
to none in Eastern cities. The hotel is supplied with artesian water.
It is furnished throughout in the most elegant style of modern art.
There are several other large, first-class hotels in the city, less
elegant than the Windsor, but equally well arranged for the comfort
of guests ; while one or two score of smaller ones, with more modest
prices, receive their full share of patronage. Some idea of the im-
mense number of guests in the city may be learned from the fact,
that, for several years past, the annual arrivals at the hotels have
exceeded tzvo Juindred tJioiisand. It has been diflicult to provide
accommodations for travellers, so great has been their influx ; and it
speaks well for hotel proprietors, that they have not taken advantage
of these circumstances, and charged higher prices than prevail in
Eastern cities.
The schools of Denver, and, indeed, of Colorado, excel those of
Boston and Massachusetts in some particulars. Nor would the
author limit this remark to Colorado. No better public and private
schools arc found in the East than are found in all the older portions
of the New West. Adopting the best elements of the Eastern school
system, tested for years, and adding thereto the latest and best im-
provements suggested by leading American educators, the friends of
364 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
education in the New West may well challenge the criticisms of New
England. But the schools of Denver are exceptionally excellent, and
its school-buildings are more complete than even those of Boston.
The late Dr. John D. Philbrick, for many years the accomplished
superintendent of Boston schools, and one of the most experienced
and reliable educators of the country, visited the schools of Denver
in the spring of 1882, and devoted several weeks to a systematic and
thorough examination of them. He says : —
" In the first place, the schoolhouses were visited while occupied
by the pupils, and their qualities — mechanical, economic, hygienic,
and pedagogical — noted in detail, 'from turret to foundation-stone.*
Mr. Superintendent Gove then, with documents in hand, went over to
me, at great length, the organization and practical management of the
system with respect to administration, supervision, instruction, and
discipline. Thus instructed, I applied myself to the inspection and
examination of the classes in the schoolrooms, beginning with the
lowest Primary, and ending with the graduating class of the High
School, in hands of Mr. Principal Baker. In this survey, I observed
carefully the methods of teachers, the proficiency of the pupils, and
the spirit in which teachers and pupils were working for the ends in
view. Finally, I had the privilege of meeting the teachers in a body,
and of conversing with a considerable number of them.
"The result may be summed up by saying that I found the Den-
ver school system to be admirable in all respects. Although its origin
dates back scarcely more than a decade, its development has been
so wisely and energetically conducted that already it fairly belongs
to the front rank of city systems. It is pretty safe to say that the
creation of a system of schools on so large a scale, of such excep-
tional merits, and in so brief a space of time, is a phenomenon to
which the history of education affords no parallel.
"■ How to get good teachers and to keep them is at once the most
difficult and the most important problem in the whole range of school
economy. And it is but just to the members of the Denver Board
of Education to say that they have grappled with the problem more
successfully than any other school board within my knowledge. I
found by examining into the matter that the happy results attained
in this direction were due largely, and perhaps chiefly, to the rational
mode of examination adopted and the plan of appointments, by which
favoritism is absolutely excluded, and the choice is determined by
merit alone."
We should be glad to quote the whole of Dr. Philbrick's remarks,
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
365
but the foregoing are sufficient to justify our praise of Denver
schools ; and the following concerning the school-buildings of the
city pronounces them superior to those of Boston, or any other city
or town in the country : —
" The schoolhouses of Denver reflect the highest credit upon the
school officials who are responsible for the plans, and the liberality of
the citizens in furnishing the fund for their erection. These are all
handsome and substantial structures, well located on lots of ample
dimensions. As to cost, they are truly models of a wise economy.
Every schoolroom is first-class in every respect. The corridors and
HIGH SCHOOL.
stairs present some original features of no little merit. The Ameri-
can schoolhouse, which the French Commission to our Centennial
considered our best model, has schoolrooms of the first order, but
the corridors are dark and badly ventilated, and the stairs are un-
satisfactory. It is only just to say that Denver has been more
successful in remedying these defects so general in our school archi-
tecture than any other city that I have visited, and I know of no city
that has better accommodations for all its schools."
In February, 1879, the United States government presented the
whole block one hundred and forty-three to the city, on condition
that a school-building should be erected upon it. The outcome of
the gift is the beautiful High School building as seen in the illustra-
366 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
tion. The west wing was erected and occupied at once, the accom-
modations, for the time, being ample. The whole edifice will soon
be completed and occupied. The west wing accommodates the pu-
pils ; the east wing contains the museum and library on the first
floor, and assembly hall on the second floor. The central portion
contains offices, recitation-rooms, music and drawing rooms, and is so
constructed as to preserve a remarkable symmetry and beauty of the
whole. The grounds are so graded as to leave the building on a ter-
race, a lovely lawn filling the space between the fence and house.
The block is surrounded with a neat stone coping and iron fence,
and broad stone walks lead up to the entrance. When the admira-
ble plan is carried out, trees, fountains, gas lamps, and other attrac-
tions will add wondrous beauty to well-chosen utility. The whole
cost will not be far from three hundred thousand dollars, — a school
edifice that will challenge comparison with any High School building
in the United States.
Denver and its schools are well supplied with libraries. The
report of the Chamber of Commerce furnishes some interesting
facts. The Public Library of the Denver Chamber of Commerce
and Board of Trade has sixteen thousand volumes. Its large read-
ing-room has on file fifteen of the principal American and English
magazines, fifteen daily and thirty weekly papers. The report says
of its museum : —
" In connection with the reading-room is the nucleus of a fine
museum, embracing the collection of animals, birds, fossil remains,
relics from the ancient Aztec ruins, etc., of the State Historical
Society ; a large and very interesting collection of relics from nearly
all the great battle-fields of the late war ; a cabinet containing speci-
mens of all the native woods of Colorado ; a carefully selected and
very valuable cabinet of Colorado minerals, with the basis of a fine
horticultural and agricultural exhibit in the form of preserved small
fruits, with grains, grasses, etc. But perhaps the most valuable,
certainly one of the more interesting, is a cabinet of rare old books
of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (originals), some of them
beautifully illustrated, which was presented by Mr. L. A. Watkins,
of this city, a connoisseur on works of this class and an enthusiastic
supporter of the library. Many other contributions of rare speci-
mens are promised by this patriotic member, and undoubtedly like
favors will be received from others, so that in a few years the Cham-
ber of Commerce library and museum will be one of .the most attrac-
tive resorts in the West."
MARVELS OF ENTEKPIUSE. 367
Other libraries contain volumes as given below :
Vols.
State Library 8223
State Supreme Court Law Library . 5000
Symes' Law Library 6000
High School Library 3500
Gilpin School Library 1000
Whittier School Library 900
Vols.
Longfellow School Lii)rary .... 300
Franklin School Library 834
Catholic Library Association . . . 1000
Denver University
Wolfe, Matthews, and Jarvis Halls .
Denver has a large supply of private schools. The '* University
of Denver " is under the auspices of the Methodist denomination,
designed to do for the New West what the Boston University is
doing for New England. It is rapidly increasing its literary advan-
tages for young ladies and gentlemen.
"Wolfe Hall " was established by the Episcopal denomination in
1868, — a home school of the first class, exclusively for girls, capa-
ble of accommodating from two hundred to three hundred pupils.
"Jarvis Hall" was established in 1869 by the Episcopal denomina-
tion, exclusively for boys. It is a thorough school, and very popular.
"Brinker's Collegiate Institute" was established in 1877 by Prof.
Joseph Brinker, of Kentucky. The school has primary, commer-
cial, musical, military, and collegiate departments, together with a
" School of the Arts " and a kindergarten. A corps of accomplished
teachers, thoroughly trained for their work, assures the best of disci-
pline and culture. The capacity of the school for the accommoda-
tion of scholars has been tested from the beginning.
All of these private institutions occupy large, substantial, and
handsome buildings.
There are other prosperous private schools in the city which chal-
lenge public confidence by their broad plans and thorough work ; and
we mean no invidious comparison by calling attention to the forego-
ing. Our only purpose is to furnish the reader with a sample of the
schools and school-buildings to be found upon what was so recently
the Sahara of the West.
Churches are numerous, all denominations being represented in
the list. Several houses of worship in the city are elegant and costly
structures.
GROWTH OF COLONIES.
The remarkable success of certain colonies in the New West
deserves special notice. Their growth and j^rosperity are among the
marvels of that wonderful country. Our space, however, will admit
368 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
the history of only two. The first is that of Greeley, Colorado,
founded in 1870. The originator of it was the late Horace Greeley,
of New York, whose name the beautiful town bears.
The citizens celebrated the fifteenth anniversary of the colony in
1885, and Gen. R. A. Cameron told the story of its life as follows : —
'' It was in December, 1869, that the first call was issued for a meet-
ing for the formation of this colony. It was agreed that Mr. Meeker
should write a letter for publication in the New York Tribicnc, asking
those who thought of moving West to establish a colony with high
moral purposes and temperance platform, to get together in Cooper
Institute on the day before Christmas. He did so ; and on that day, the
24th of December, 1869, the first meeting was held. At that meeting
there were about one hundred and fifty people present — there might
have been two hundred. Mrs. Cameron was the only lady present ;
and after two hours' discussion it was determined that we should
form a colony, and the name adopted was 'Union Colony, No. i.'
An executive committee was appointed, and Mr. Meeker made presi-
dent. I was made vice-president, and afterwards superintendent.
The colony, at their second meeting, appointed a locating or visiting
committee ; it consisted of Mr. Meeker, a man by the name of Fiske,
of Toledo, and myself. After we got on the road, it was seen that
Mr. Fiske took but little interest in the colony, and consequently, by
mutual consent, we put Mr. West in his place.
'* Well, we rambled over Colorado and Utah, and looked at loca-
tions hither and thither, and finally concluded that the Cache la
Poudre Valley was the best place to locate in, and returned to New
York and reported. It seemed desirable that we should keep it a
secret, and we did so until the land had been secured. The locations
suggested were very numerous. The Bear River Valley near Salt
Lake; the Great Bend region on the Platte, — a location near Fort
Collins; but we thought after close scrutiny that this was the better
soil for wheat and potatoes. At one time I believed we would locate
in the Big Bend region, near Platteville. Mr. Meeker was earnest in
his desire to locate there, and I liked that location myself. But we
met a friend and adviser in the person of our now honored governor,
Benjamin H. Eaton, who had a good deal to say about the soil and
his experience in this country and New Mexico ; and his persuasion
brought us here to the Poudre Valley.
"At first it was not settled that this should be so exclusively a
temperance colony. The question was not discussed as to how far
we should go in this regard, until one night Mr. Greeley sent for me,
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 369
and asked me to meet him and Mr. Meeker in his office up stairs in the
Trlbiuie building, when Mr. Greeley said to us something like this : —
*' ' There are very many places in the world you can go to and get
drunk, but there are very few places that you can go to where you
are obliged to keep sober. It is very easy to get drunk, but it is
very hard to stay sober. Now, there are men, the husbands of good
women, who drink, and their wives want to save them ; there are
intelligent young men of great promise, whose fathers and mothers
want to save them from the evil influences of drink ; there are sisters
who have brothers they want to save. Now, I desire and am earnest
for humanity's sake, that you people build up an asylum under the
shadow of the Rocky Mountains, under new circumstances, where
you shall live by irrigation and flourish in a new clime, where a man
can go and cannot get drunk. There are many men who desire such
a place. As there are thousands of places where men can get drunk,
let us have one place where they cannot get drunk. What I desire
in this matter is not for myself, but for humanity.'
'' And as he spoke, the tears came into the eyes of that great
head, and the deepest emotion swelled that great heart. All com-
mercial reasons, all other objections, all other objects floated from
my vision, and Mr. Meeker, rising from the table at which we were
sitting, said, ' That is the platform.' Mr. Greeley looked over to me
and said : ' Mr. Cameron, what do you say t We desire you to go
with us, and we want you to become imbued with this spirit of
humanity.' I arose, reached my hand across the table, and took
his extended hand in mine, and with weeping eyes we swore
together that we would devote our lives to this purpose, to this ideal,
to this inspiration, until, with the aid of God Almighty, it should
prove a success.
" Of the struggle, the hardships, the grievances, personal disasters,
etc., of the early colonists, I have nothing to say to-day. It is suf-
ficient for us to know that the ideal, the vision, has become a realiza-
tion. It is sufficient to know that all the bloom has ripened into
golden fruit. To-day we have here the most peaceable, the most
prosperous, the most law-abiding, the most conscientious, the most
intelligent, the most earnest, the largest-hearted people which God
ever brought together. And the people all over the State have
drawn inspiration from it.
" Longmont Colony followed it ; Fort Collins followed it ; Colorado
Springs followed it ; Manitou followed it ; the development of the
railway system followed it ; the development of the natural resources
370 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
of Colorado followed it. The inspiration which has made Colorado
what she is, is in a great measure attributed to the influences of
Union Colony. Such men as Shattuck, Nettleton, Eaton, and Pabor,
who have done so much for our State, are the outgrowth of this
colony. The inspiration which this colony has given, and which
extends like a halo over the tops of the Rocky Mountains, and is
seen even to the sea and all over the continent to-day, is immeasur-
able. To Mr. Greeley, Mr. Meeker, and all those devoted spirits who
started this conception and stayed with it all through its trials,
troubles, and tribulations, there is nothing but glory, honor, and
success, and to them be praise for evermore for the great work they
have accomplished."
The call for the first meeting in New York, written by Mr. Meeker,
contained the following paragraphs : —
'* I propose to unite with proper persons for the establishment of
a colony in Colorado Territory, and the persons with whom I would
be willing to associate must be temperance men, and men ambitious
to establish good society.
" My plan would be to make the settlement almost wholly in a vil-
lage ; all the lots of the village should be sold, that funds may be ob-
tained for making improvements for the common gx)od, such as the
building of a church, a town hall, a schoolhouse, and for the establish-
ment of a library. Adjoining the village, the outlying tracts could be
apportioned, by lot or otherwise, in size according to distance from the
village centre. Some of the advantages of settling in a village will
be easy access to schools and public places, meetings, lectures, and
the like, and society can be had at once.
" I make the point that two important objects are to be gained by
such a colony. First, schools, refined society, and all the advantages
of an old country will be secured in a few years, while on the con-
trary, where settlements are made by the old methods, people are
obliged to wait twenty, forty, or more years. Second, with free
homesteads as a basis, with the sale of lots for the general good, the
greatly increased values of real estate will be for the benefit of all
the people, not for schemers and speculators. In the success of this
colony, a model will be presented for settling the remainder of the
vast territory of our country.
*' Third, whatever professions and occupations enter into the forma-
tion of an intelligent, educated, and thrifty community, should be
embraced by this colony, and it should be the object to exhibit all
that is best in modern civilization. In particular should moral and
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 3/1
religious sentiments prevail, for without these qualities man is nothing.
At the same time, tolerance and liberty should also prevail.
*' One thing more is equally important. Happiness and wealth
and the glory of a state spring from the family, and it should be an
aim and ambition to preserve the family pure in all its relations, and
to labor with the best efforts life and strength can give to make the
home comfortable, to beautify and adorn it, and to supply it with
whatever will make it attractive and loved."
''Temperance, Education and Religion" were the three pillars cf
the colony from the start. How nobly the colonists adhered to their
purpose to provide the best schools for their children, appears from
the following illustration of their first school-building, erected when
the colony was but three years old, at an expense of thirty-five
thonsaiid dollars. Two ward schoolhouses, in addition, cost ten
thousand dollars each.
Few towns or cities in the East can boast a more elegant school-
building than this. It is built of brick, and is provided with
all the modern improvements of a first-class schoolhouse, including
chemical and philosophical apparatus, laboratory, library, etc., etc.
From personal observation we do not hesitate to say, that, within it
are schools, including High School, that are equal in thoroughness
and discipline to the best schools of New England. Teachers are
paid nearly twice the salary paid in Massachusetts towns of like
population and wealth, thereby securing the best teachers to be
found east or west.
The grounds are ample and beautiful, occupying a whole block,
with Lincoln Park in front. Part of the grounds are laid out in
delightful lawns, which irrigation keeps green and velvety. The
remaining portion furnishes a convenient play-ground for both sexes ;
and the whole is beautified with thrifty shade trees. A janitor is
employed, on a salary of five hundred dollars annually, to take care
of the building and grounds. He must be present when the school
is in session, to respond promptly to the calls of teachers and pupils
for his services. He sweeps the whole building daily, washes the
stairways and halls weekly, and keeps the interior as neat and clean
as a good housekeeper does her home. With a population of two
thousand five hundred, Greeley has been appropriating an average
of ten thousand five hundred dollars for its schools for several years,
— nearly twice as much as the towns of Massachusetts of the same
size expend upon their schools. At the fifteenth anniversary of the
colony, Hon. J. C. Shattuck, then a resident of Greeley, and super-
37-
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING.
intendent of the schools of Colorado, called attention to the following
significant fact : —
** When, in the unfinished room of that schoolhouse on the 13th
of October, 1873, the citizens voted to instruct the district board to
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
373
I
raise as a special tax for that year, in the midst of their poverty, with
scarce a thousand men here who were not living on the means they
brought with them ; under such circumstances, they instructed their
district board to raise by special tax for the purpose of building and
carrying on of schools through the year, the sum of eight thousand
dollars. That, put on to the regular school tax for that year, ladies
and gentlemen, meant a total school tax that year of five per cent.
If that is not a record of which any people might be proud, then show
me another. They voted it themselves, paid it themselves, and with-
out a murmur ; and as I think of it, and think of who these people
were, of their indomitable spirit, their proud independence, I can
imagine very easily what a rebellion had been here, if any power
above us had ordered a tax of five per cent that year ; but we did it
ourselves and paid it, and finished our school-building, now the pride
_ ___ _ -. <^f the city, and kept our school
^^^^ , ■-'" J goii^g- That spirit, ladies and
gentlemen, is a prouder legacy
and richer endowment than any
people ever had in dollars and
cents."
It is the policy in the New
West to erect commodious, sub-
stantial, and handsome school-
buildings in the outset. It is
deemed both economical and
wise to build them for a gen-
eration, or longer. Hence, on approaching many Western towns, the ■
traveller beholds a large, elegant, brick edifice, attractive beyond all
other structures in the place ; and he soon learns to say : " That is the
schoolhouse." But the policy is otherwise in erecting houses of wor-
ship. With their limited means, it is economic to provide temporary
places of worship at first. Hence, for ten years, the Congregational
Church of Greeley worshipped '*on the spot where the first public relig-
ious service in the colony was held in an adobe building occupied at
first as a hotel, and called the ' Park House.' " Now the society occu-
pies an attractive house of worship, erected at an expense of seven or
eight thousand dollars. The city contains six houses of worship at
present, — Congregational, Presbyterian, United Presbyterian, Bap-
tist, Methodist, and Episcopal, all of them worthy of the service to
which they are dedicated. The Unitarians worship in a hall.
The above cut represents the first building in which religious wor-
FIRST PLACE OF WORSHIP
374
MARVELS OF THE XEW WEST.
ship was maintained. It was
an old building removed from
Cheyenne. Lumber had to be
hauled thirty or forty miles,
so that the purchase and re-
moval of this building proved
a godsend to the pioneers. It
was used for a boarding-house,
freight-house, and public hall.
Here all secular and religious
meetings were held. Bustle
and confusion reigned within
it through the week ; but on
Sunday morning, trunks, bales,
and packages were arranged for
seats, and the people gathered for worship. Subsequently it was con-
verted into a schoolhouse, and was so used until the elegant new
schoolhouse was completed, when it was converted into a livery stable,
to which purpose it has been devoted ever since. In those early days,
FIRST HO
LAST HOTEL — THE "OASIS."
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 375
when it was used for a variety of purposes, it was called ^' Hotel de
Comfort." Without it the hardships of the pioneers would have
been largely multiplied.
The two cuts on page 374, by contrast, show the difference between
tJicn and now. A shelter only was demanded in 1870; nozv, conven-
ience, elegance, luxury. The new public house is called ''The
Oasis," and was erected at an expense of eighty tJioiisand dollars,
thirteen years after the "Greeley House" offered only poor shelter
to wayfarers. Several other hotels, less pretentious than " The Oasis,"
though far, far in advance of the " Greeley House," are found in the
city. The colony purchased more than seventy thousand acres of
land ; nine thousand acres of the Denver Pacific Railway Company,
for thirty-one thousand dollars ; two thousand five hundred acres of
individuals, for twenty-eight thousand dollars ; and sixty thousand
acres of the United States Government. For irrigation, a ditch was
dug around the whole tract, taking water from the Cache de Poudre
River. Herds of cattle grazed upon these plains, so that the farms of
the colonists must be protected by fences. But many of them had spent
their last dollar when this stubborn fact confronted them. For this rea-
son, the colony decided to put a wire fence around the whole
tract (more than fifty miles of fence), thus protecting all, at the
public expense. Each man paid five dollars for current expenses
when he joined the colony, and, held subject to the call of the Treas-
urer, one hundred and fifty dollars for the purchase of land.
The town is laid out in squares, the streets being one hundred feet
wide, including sidewalks twelve feet wide on each side. Both sides
of each street are lined with shade trees ; and on one side of each
street, also, is an irrigating ditch, dispensing its fresh, pure water, to
make the vegetation green and cheerful. The town has a hundred
miles of irrigating canals. It is appropriately called the " Garden
City."
The following illustration represents one of the several fine busi-
ness blocks which are an ornament to the town. It was erected at an
expense of nearly eighty thousand dollars. The demand for such
structures may be learned from the following statement of a Tribune
(Denver) correspondent, who collected the facts and statistics with
great care for publication : —
" Few cities of its age and size have attained the world-wide repu-
tation of Greeley. During the year (1885) two very fine brick blocks
have been erected on Main Street : one by the First National Bank,
costing $40,000 ; the other, by Hunter %l West, bankers, costing
3/6
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
^60,000. Last year Mr. Hunter also built a magnificent three-story
brick block opposite the First National Bank, in which are located the
Post Office and the Masonic Hall.
'' Greeley also boasts of a well-organized fire department, with a
steam fire-engine, and a military company numbering sixty-two. The
latter has the finest armory in the State, and a drill-room 47 x 112 in
the new Hunter block.
BUSINESS BLOCK.
^'The Electric Light Company have their plant, costing $15,000,
nearly completed, and Greeley will soon be lighted with electricity.
Six artesian wells, depth 1,200 feet, supply the town with fine drink-
ing-water. A large library, containing 3,000 volumes, has been
established during the year. A system of drainage and sewerage
has been adopted by the Town Board, and the tiling is now being
laid, ten to fifteen feet deep. There are eight physicians and ten
lawyers in Greeley, who have a healthy community and an empty
iail for their encouragement.
MARVELS OF EiVrERPK/SE. 37/
''The following is a list of Greeley's business houses, with the
amount of business done during the year : —
" Five agricultural implement dealers, $130,000 ; 3 bookstores and
music dealers, $45,000; i bakery, $6,000; 5 blacksmiths, $15,000;
10 building contractors, $200,000; 3 barbers, $7,000; i business
college, 27 pupils; 3 clothing dealers, $100,000; 5 confectioners,
$15,000; 3 coal dealers, $30,000; 3 carriage and wagon dealers,
$20,000; I candy manufacturer, $3,500; 2 dentists, $4,000; 3 drug
stores, $35,000; 4 dry goods, boots and shoes, $145,000; 6 eating
houses, $20,000; I elevator, $200,000; 2 flouring mills, $250,000; 2
feed stores, $10,000; 2 furniture dealers, $20,000; i gunsmith,
$1,500 ; 7 groceries and provisions, $200,000 ; 3 general merchandise,
$85,000; 2 hardware, $50,000; 3 harness makers, $20,000; 4 hotels,
$55,000 ; 3 jewellers, $20,000 ; 2 lime dealers, $7,000 ; 2 lumber yards,
$70,000; 2 liveries, $5,000; 2 merchant tailors, $10,000; 5 milliners,
$20,000 ; 5 meat markets, $60,000 ; 2 photographers, $4,000 ; 2 prod-
uce dealers, $150,000; 3 paint shops, $15,000; i sash factory,
$20,000; I sewing-machine office, $5,000; 4 shoe shops, $10,000; 2
tobacco dealers, $7,000 ; i violin maker, $2,000 ; i wagon maker,
$5,000. Total, $2,080,500.
*' In addition to the above, there are three banks, whose aggrega-
ted capital is $205,000, with a deposit account of $375,000. The real
estate agents made sales amounting to $180,000. The Building and
Loan Association, capital stock, $200,000, organized in 1883, has
cleared up to the present time, three years, forty per cent upon its
investments. The three brick-yards made about 1,000,000 bricks each,
during the year, all of which were used in Greeley. Hawks & Tuck-
ermon's Creamery, about three miles from Greeley, made over 15,000
pounds of butter during the past year. The life and fire insurance
companies have written policies amounting to nearly $1,000,000 dur-
ing the year 1885.
" The market gardeners and fruit growers have organized a stock
company for the purpose of building a canning factory in Greeley
the coming season. The gardens about Greeley are very productive,
profitable, and among the chief attractions to strangers, Gardenside
Avenue and Eighth Street, upon which they are mostly located, form-
ing the principal boulevard of the town.
" The financial condition of the town is good, it being out of debt,
and its warrants at par."
From the report of the secretary of Greeley's Board of Trade for
1885 we extract the following : —
378 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
" There are no saloons, and consequently we have no need of a
police force. One marshal is appointed by the board, and during
1885 he made no arrests. This, in a city of two thousand five hun-
dred population, is remarkable. His services for the year cost eighty-
three dollars.
*' The business houses would be an honor to a city much larger,
few cities having finer stores or more complete stocks of goods. All
these, coupled with a community of intelligent, progressive citizens,
make a city that we are proud of, and to which we invite those who
desire to settle in a home where the temptations of liquor and gam-
bling are not thrown around the young ; where the sun shines three
hundred and fifty days in the year ; where we never have a cyclone ;
where the air is dry and pure ; and, best of all, where the beautiful
Rockies, with their snow-clad summits, are always in full view for
over one hundred miles.
"Over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars were spent in 1885
in improvements, besides a system of sewerage which was built by
the city. The schools are not surpassed by any, east or west.
" The total number of pounds of produce, potatoes, flour, and
grain, shipped from the Greeley station in 1884, was 26,375,580.
This in connection with hay makes a showing equalled by few cities
of its size in the West."
The reader may be curious to know how the Colony succeeded
with its temperance platform. In the East, many of the leaders of
thought and enterprise believe that a liquor-shop is indispensable to
civilization ; but here is a town, at the base of the Rocky Mountains,
proposing to get on without even one. How could this be done ?
From a paper read before the "Colorado Historical Society," by
Hon. W. E. Pabor, we extract the following : —
"May 12, 1870, in executive committee, a resolution was adopted
requiring the insertion, in all deeds to be given, of the following
clause : ' That it is a part of the consideration in this deed, that
intoxicating liquors shall not be manufactured or sold as a beverage,
nor shall gambling of any kind be permitted on the premises
conveyed.' "
Five months thereafter the first test occurred, of which Mr. Pabor
speaks thus : —
" October 23 was the Sabbath day, and therefore a day for good
deeds. It had been rumored during the preceding week that a saloon
iiad been opened on a ranch adjoining the town in which the Colony
owned a half-interest. At the close of the morning service in Colony
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
379
hall, we were requested to remain, and a brief statement of the case
was made. A committee was appointed to visit the saloon-keeper
and report. About two hundred persons accompanied the committee.
The keeper, of course, asserted the rights he had obtained from the
parties owning the other half-interest in the land and building, but
at last a compromise was effected by which the liquor was to be
removed to a place of safety, while the matter v/as investigated. But
parties present who did not endorse such action soon fomented a
disturbance, and shortly the
building was found to be on
fire in two or three places.
The rum, the card-tables, the
decanters, the dice-boxes, etc.,
were speedily hustled out, and
a line of men with water buck-
ets formed to the river just
below ; but the pails were
leaky and the men unskilful,
and so the building burned
down. The affair culminated
in the justice's court, but no
one knoweth, even unto this
day, if the shanty was set on
fire or it was a case of spon-
taneous combustion."
At this time the colony
numbered one thousand, and
three hundred and fifty-two
houses had been built, or were
in process of building.
The name of Nathan C. Meeker, first president of the Greeley
Colony, has appeared in the foregoing pages. He was a philanthro-
pist and noble man, and his tragic end deserves mention here. He
was appointed Indian agent to the White River Agency, and accepted
the trust solely on account of his desire to benefit the Indians. He
thought that he could readily teach them how to till the soil, whereby
to support themselves, and, at the same time, establish schools among
them that would insure their intellectual growth. He thought they
might be made industrious, intelligent, and virtuous. But, alas ! Mr.
Meeker was massacred by the treacherous men whom he sought to
benefit, on the twenty-third day of September, 1879. The Indians
MEEKER AND HIS HOME.
38o MARVELS OF THE NEV/ WEST.
were unwilling to work, and grew restive under the white man's rule.
Naturally lazy and indolent, they became dissatisfied with their ben-
efactor and his plans. After an interview with Mrs. Meeker, and
carefully studying the history of the barbarous affair, we believe
that these lazy, thievish, treacherous Utes, properly called savages,
murdered Mr. Meeker, because he persisted in teaching them indus-
try and virtue.
Colonel Steele was at the agency on the loth of September, and
witnessed so much excitement among the Indians, that he suggested
to Mr. Meeker's secretary that the redskins were bent on mischief.
After this conversation with the secretary, ''Ute Jack" approached
the Colonel, and said: —
*' What white man want } White man go. Indian want white
man go. Indian no like plough and go school. Meeker all time say
'work and go school.'
" Presently another Indian approached him, and fired off his ' white
man go.' "
Colonel Steele had abundant reason to believe that the massacre
was deliberately planned some time before it occurred — one of the
most heartless and hellish butcheries to be found in the annals of
time. The following account of it by Mrs. Meeker was published in
the New York Herald, soon after her release from captivity : —
'' I went with my daughter Josephine to the White River agency,
where we joined my late husband (the agent) July 17, 1878. We did
not like the site of the old agency, as it was in a canon. The altitude
was too great for the practice of agriculture, and the winds blew
fiercely and constantly. The government, therefore, gave permission
to Mr. Meeker to move the agency twenty miles further down the
White River to a beautiful valley, where the grass is always green,
where there is no snow, and where there is plenty of land to cultivate,
and timber in abundance.
''Trouble began when the agent indicated an intention of plough-
ing eighty acres of land lying between Douglass Avenue and the
river. The Indians had not used the land except for their ponies to
run on. It was open and unoccupied. As soon as he heard of any
dissatisfaction about the matter, the agent called the Indians together
and settled it by obtaining the consent of the majority of the Indians
to plough. Chief Johnson failed to attend the council, and when the
Utes gave their permission he grew angry, and it was his son who
shot at the ploughman. Afterward Johnson said he was ' no angry ' ;
but back of all this there were signs of wickedness and secret plot-
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 3^1
ting, suspicious movements, increasing rumors, large sales of ammu-
nition, and false charges that the agent had cut down the rations.
This last was false. The government had reduced or changed the
issue of rations for all the Indians. My husband gave the White
River Indians regular and full government rations, but he had orders
from Washington not to issue rations to the Uncompahgre, Uintah,
Arapahoe, or other outside visiting Indians. This was according to
his official instructions. The object was to keep the Indians from
straying from the reservation and wandering around the country.
The Uncompahgre Utes complained to Ouray, and this is the founda-
tion for the statements published that the agent withheld their sup-
plies. All the White River Utes proper were fed according to law,
and those who worked on the canal received double rations, extra
blankets and shoes, and all kinds of agency goods which they needed.
An Indian woman was hired to cook for the Indian workmen, and
they were paid fifteen dollars a month, cash, for working on their
land.
"■ The Indians were well treated, but the agent did not propose to
have them take charge of his household and office, and dictate to him
how he should conduct his affairs. He would not tolerate their idle-
ness and insolence, so they conspired to get him out of the way.
They clamored for a new agent, and it was only when they heard of
the troops coming that they became frightened at the results of their
work. Jane, the woman who first growled about the ploughing,
spoke good English. After we were captured, she said : —
"'What could you expect.^ The Indians had to kill the whites,
because neither they nor the agent would do as the Utes told them
to do.'
" On the morning of the massacre Douglass came to the agency
and spoke of the soldiers coming. My husband said : —
" ' Let them come. They will not hurt any one. But we will
send for all the chiefs and head captains, and hear their complaints,
and talk the matter over.'
" Douglass did not say much, and went away. We did not fear
any particular danger, though on Saturday, three days before the
massacre, they had moved their tents and women and children to the
wilderness. The Indian Pauvitz asked me on Saturday, Sunday, and
Monday, if I was afraid. I said, 'No.' Pauvitz was the husband of
Jane.
" I was in the kitchen with my daughter, washing dishes, about
half-past one o'clock. We had just finished dinner. Some of the In-
382 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
dians had eaten with us, and Chief Douglass had been picking around
the table and joking with my daughter Josephine while we were
washing the dishes. There came a volley of firearms — a succession
of sharp explosions. It was startling, and I knew what was coming.
My daughter and I looked into each other's faces. Mrs. Price, who
was washing clothes at the door, rushed in, exclaiming : —
'' ' What shall we do } '
"Josephine said, * Keep all together,' and the girl was as cool as
if she were receiving callers in a parlor.
" The windows were shot in. Our first move was to get under the
bed in Josephine's room to avoid the bullets, which were whizzing
over our heads. Josephine had the key of the milk house, and pro-
posed to go there. The bullets were flying like hailstones, and we
locked ourselves into the milk house, which had double walls filled in
with adobe clay, and there was only one little window. We stayed
there all the afternoon, and heard no sounds but the crash of guns.
We knew all the men were being killed, and expected that the In-
dians would finish the day with the butchery of the women. Frank
Dresser came in shot through the leg. He killed an Indian just as
we let him into the milk house.
'' About five o'clock in the afternoon the firing ceased and all was
still. Suddenly we heard the low crackling of flames, and smelt smoke.
Then we saw it coming through the cracks in the ceiling, and knew
that the destruction of the agency buildings had begun.
"While in the building we barely whispered, and tried to keep
Mrs. Price's babies still. As the fire was increasing we left the milk
house cautiously, and Josephine reconnoitered the enemy.
"'It is a good time to escape,' she said. 'The Indians are busy
stealing agency goods.'
"We went around in front of the agent's oflice, and found the
doors open and things undisturbed, except that some of my husband's
clothing lay on the front stoop. We saw no one, living or dead, and
no sign of any one having been killed. We ran, in a line with the
buildings, toward the sage brush, so as to keep the buildings between
us and the Indians, who were at the warehouse pulling out the goods ;
but we had not gone far before we were discovered, and the Indians
made for us, firing as they ran. The bullets fell all around us, and
one struck me on the thigh, ploughing through the flesh, just under
the skin. It stung me like a wasp, and I thought it time to drop.
I fell to the ground. The Indians captured Josephine and Mrs.
Price first, as they were behind me, with Mrs. Price's babies.
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 383
'* You have my daughter's account of her experience. A chief,
whose name I could never learn, came to me and said he was ' heap
sorry.' He asked me if I could get up. I said * Yes.' He then asked
me if I would go with him. I said 'Yes.' He said he was 'heap
mad ; soldier killed Indian ; ' he saw them shoot, and he was * heap
mad.' They would 'no kill women and children.' The Indians had
so ordered it. He said he would take me to Chief Douglass' house,
and asked if I had any whiskey. I said, ' No ' ; and he asked if I had
any money. I answered that there was some in my room in the build-
ing then on fire. The Indian told me to get it and he would wait for
me. He was afraid to go into the burning building. I got the money,
the Indian urging me to hurry up, as he had a great way to go that
night. We went to Douglass' camp, and the Indian made me count
the money. There were thirty dollars. The Indian took it and gave
it to Chief Douglass. I had two silver dollars, and Douglass gave
them to the Indian who captured me. The Indian then went away.
I told Douglass that I must have some blankets. He sent an Indian
named Thompson to the burning building with me, and I got a hood,
a shawl, and one blanket. I handed around bedding, etc., among
the Indians, rather than have them destroyed. The Indians took
them, and I afterward saw them in camp, when I was suffering for
the want of blankets to keep me warm. I told Douglass that I wanted
my medicine and my 'spirit book.' I had doctored Douglass and his
family. He said ' Go ' ; so I went back a second time, and got a large
copy of ' Pilgrim's Progress ' and a box of medicines. The box was
so heavy that an Indian refused to carry it. It was lost, but he took
the book. When I got back to Douglass, and told that chief the
Indian had said that the medicine chest was too heavy to carry,
Douglass looked disappointed and sorrowful, and asked : —
" ' Couldn't you have split the box a little, so you could have
brought part of it } '
" In going back this last time I saw the body of my husband
stretched on the ground in front of the warehouse ; all the clothing
was gone but the shirt. The body was not mutilated. The arms
were extended at the side of the head. The face looked as peaceful
and natural as in life, but blood was running from the mouth. I
stooped to kiss him ; but just as my lips were near his, I saw an In-
dian standing stone still, looking at me, so I turned and walked away.
Douglass afterward said that my husband was shot through the side
of the head.
" Preparations to leave immediately were made. It was now dark.
3^4
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
and Douglass lost no time in getting started. Being lame from hav-
ing had a thigh dislocated three years ago, and not being used to
riding, I asked to ride behind Douglass. The moon came out so
clearly that the
night seemed
like day. We
forded the river
and trotted off
towards the
mountains on
the south.
"Douglass'
breath smelled
strongly of whis-
key. He said :
'Your father
dead ; I had a
father once ; he
too is dead.
Agent no under-
stand about the
fight Indians
make.'
''The other
Indians all took
out bottles of
whiskey, which
they held up be-
tween their eyes
and the moon as
they drank, so as
to see how much
was left. Doug-
lass, as he rode
along, sang what
seemed to be an
obscene song to a pretty melody in slow measure. When he had
finished, he asked how I liked it. My limb ached so terribly that I
could scarcely sit on the horse. Douglass held it a while ; then he
strapped it in a kind of a sling to his saddle. I asked if I could see
my daughter, Josephine. Douglass replied, ' Yes.' As we rode, a
CAPTIVITY OF MRS. MEEKER AND DAUGHTER.
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 385
villanous-looking Indian trotted alongside, and slapped me on the
shoulder, and asked me how I would like to be his squaw, and made
indecent proposals. Chief Douglass listened and laughed. He said
the Indian was an Arapahoe, and I would kill Utes if I married an
Arapahoe.
** We left the trail, and came to a little canon in the mountains,
with high rocks on all sides. All dismounted, and the prisoners were
searched by the Indians, even to our shoes and stockings. They
stole my pocket-book, which was full of needles, and a handkerchief ;
but they gave the handerchief back. They talked indecently to us,
and made shameful proposals. They were drunk, and their conver-
sation was loud with ribaldry. They even threatened me with death
if I did not submit to their bestiality. Fortunately I escaped outrage,
but had to submit to terrifying threats of violence and death. Doug-
lass went through the burlesque of imitating the employees in keep-
ing guard at the agency. He mocked the soldiers, walking up and
down with a gun on his shoulder, and sang.
" As I lay on the ground, not knowing when I should be butch-
ered, I thought of my young daughter Josephine, who was not far
away, and wondered if she had already been slaughtered. My face
was partly covered, but suddenly I heard Douglass' voice. I turned
and saw Chief Douglass standing close by me, with the muzzle of his
gun pointed directly at my face. I involuntarily cried out. Jose-
phine heard me, and her voice came out of the night, saying : —
" * I am all right, mamma ; don't be afraid ! '
" Douglass lowered his gun, raised it again, and took aim. I said
nothing and he walked away. An Indian standing near said : —
*' ' Douglass no hurt you ; he only playing soldier.'
'' After resting for half an hour we remounted and rode until mid-
night, when we reached the Ute women's camp. Douglass ordered
me roughly to get off the horse. I was so lame and in such pain
that I told him I could not move. He took my hand and pulled me
off, and I fell on the ground because I could not stand. An Indian
and a squaw soon came and helped me up, and led me to a tent.
When I went to bed Douglass and his wife covered me with blankets,
and I was more comfortable that night than at any other time during
my captivity. Early next morning Douglass awoke me, saying : —
'''Runner just come; Indians killed heap soldiers; Douglass go
to front ; gone five days.' He said I must stay in his tent and wait
until he returned.
" Douglass' squaw treated me very well for one or two days ; then
386 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
she began to ill-use me, and gave me nothing to eat for one day.
While Douglass was gone, his son-in-law told me frightful stories.
He said the Indians 'no shoot ' me, but would stab me to death with
knives. One squaw went through the pantomime of roasting me
alive ; at least, I so understood it. Josephine told me that it w'as only
done to torment me. If Douglass had got killed, I would probably
have been punished. A row of knives was prepared with scabbards
and placed in the tent for use. Then Douglass' son-in-law, Johnson,
came to me and asked if I had seen the knives being fixed all day.
I said 'Yes.' He replied that 'Indians perhaps stab' me, and 'no
shoot ' me. ' You say Douglass your friend ; we see Douglass when
come back from the soldiers.'
" Many of the squaws looked very sorrowful, as if some great
calamity were about to happen ; others were not kind to me ; and
Freddie Douglass, the chief's son, whom I had taken into my house
at the agency and washed, and taught, and doctored, and nursed, and
made healthy, came to me in my captivity and mocked me worse
than all the rest. The Douglass blood was in him, and he was bad.
He said I was a bad squaw and an old white squaw. He tried to
steal the old wildcat skin that I slept on, and stole my handker-
chief while I was asleep, and jeered at me during my imprisonment.
" Douglass returned from fighting the soldiers on Saturday night.
On the next day his wife went back to the agency for the cabbages
raised by the cultivation the Indians professed so much to despise.
Douglass was morose and sullen, and had little to say. He did not
seem to be satisfied with the military situation, but thought the In-
dians would annihilate the soldiers. Large numbers of head men
and captains came to consult Douglass. They were in and out most
of the night, making speeches and discussing things in general, as
though the fate of the universe depended on their decision. Doug-
lass often asked us where the agent was. I said that I did not know.
Douglass rejoined that neither did he know. Mrs. Douglass treated
me spitefully, and her chief was not much better, though he gave me
enough to eat. When he was gone very little was cooked.
" In a day or two Johnson became very cross, and early one morn-
ing we began to move again. It was a very long and terrible jour-
ney that I made that day. I rode a pony with neither saddle nor
bridle nor stirrups. There was only a tent-cloth strapped on the
horse's back, and an old halter to guide him with. It was the most
distressing experience of my life. Not a single halt was made, and
my pain was so great that the cold drops stood on my forehead. I
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 387
could only cling to the pony by riding astride. We travelled rapidly
over mountains so steep that one would find difficulty in walking over
them on foot. The dust was suffocating, and I had neither water
nor dinner. Josephine and Mrs. Price rode ahead. One of the
mountains was so steep that after making part of the ascent, Doug-
lass' party had to turn back and go around it. This incident shows
what hardships delicate women on bareback horses had to endure.
''We reached a camping-ground half an hour after dark and
pitched our tents in the valley. The moon was small. I was so faint
that I could not get off my horse nor move until a kind woman as-
sisted me to the ground. I was too ill and exhausted to eat, and I
went to bed without any supper. We stayed at this place several
days. As the soldiers approached, the Indians moved further south,
at intervals of two or three days, until they reached the pleasant
meadows on Plateau Creek, below Grand River, where General
Adams found us. Before we reached this last place Douglass per-
mitted Josephine to come to see me every day, and the long hours
were more endurable. The courage of the brave girl and her words
of hope cheered me very much. My life would not have been safe
had it not been for her influence with the Indians. She could speak
some of their language, and she made them cease terrifying me with
their horrible threats and indecent stories. She finally forced Doug-
lass to give me a saddle, so that the last days of journeying I had
something besides a bareback horse to ride upon. It gave me great
joy on one of the evenings of those terrible first days to hear her, as
we passed each other in the moonlight, sing out cheerily : ' Keep up
good courage, mother ; I am all right. We shall not be killed.'
"The last evenings of our stay were devoted to songs and merry-
making by those who were not away on the mountains watching the
soldiers. Mrs. Price joined in some of the choruses, because it
helped us and made the Indians more lenient. They told a great
variety of stories, and cracked jokes on each other and on the white
men. They had dances and medicine festivals. Notwithstanding
these hilarities, however, the Indians were troubled and anxious
about the troops. Runners were constantly coming and going. The
least rumor or movement of the soldiers threw the Indians into a
flutter. Chief Douglass began to realize the peril of the situation.
Colorow advised them to go no further south, though the troops were
moving down from the north. Better fight and defend their camps,
he said, than retreat. Chief Ouray, the friend of the whites, did not
want the White River Utes on his domain. Douglass spoke of the
388 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
agency as gone forever. He said it would have to be built up again.
The Indians had lost all ; and with a sigh, he exclaimed, ' Douglass a
heap poor man now.'
''When he had time he fell to abusing the agent, and said that if
he had kept the troops away there would have been no war. One
day I was told that a white man named Washington would come
soon. At last an Uncompahgre Ute came from Chief Ouray and
spoke very kindly to me, and as he sat by the fire, said, ' To-morrow
five white men coming and some Indians.'
"Among them would be 'Chicago man Sherman, a great big
peace man.' General Adams said they were going to have a talk,
and the captives would go home. The Uncompahgre said that a
wagon would be waiting at a certain place below the plateau.
" Next day we were washing at the creek, when Chief Johnson
came and said that a big council was to be held, and that we must
not come up to the tents until the end of the meeting. Dinner was
sent us by the squaws, and we began to have hopes of release, after
being deluded with false predictions many times before. Finally,
we saw the foremost of the white men on the top of the hill by
the tent.
"When I first saw General Adams, I could not say a word, my
emotion was so great. We had borne insults and threats of death,
mockery and ridicule, and not one of us had shed a tear ; but the
sight of General Adams, Captain Cline, Mr. Sherman, and their men
was too much for me. My gratitude was greater than my speech.
We owe much to the wife of Johnson. She is Ouray's sister, and,
like him, she has a kind heart. Ouray had ordered us to be well
treated, and that we should be allowed to go home.
" The council was a stormy one. Various opinions prevailed. The
war-party wanted us held until peace should be made between the In-
dians and the government. They wanted to set us against the guilty
murderers, so as to save them through us. After a few hours of vio-
lent speeches, Mrs. Johnson burst into the lodge in a magnificent
wrap, and demanded that the captives be set free, war or no war.
Her brother Ouray had so ordered ; and she took the assembly by
storm. She told the pathetic story of the captives, and advised the
Indians to do as Ouray requested, and trust to the mercy of the gov-
ernment. General Adams said he must have a decision at once, or
he would have to leave. That settled it, and we were set free.
" Next morning, when we were about to start for the wagon, which
was a day's journey to the south, Chief Johnson, who was slightly
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
389
cool toward us, threw out a poor saddle for me to ride upon. His
wife Susan caught sight of it, and was furious. She flung it away,
and went to a pile of saddles, and picked out the best one in the lot.
She found a good blanket, and gave both to me. Then she turned
to her chief, and poured out her contempt with such effect that he
was glad to sneak away.
" So long as I remember the tears which this good woman shed
over her children, the words of sympathy which she gave, the kind-
ness that she continually showed to us, I shall never cease to respect
her, to bless the goodness of her brother Ouray — the Spanish-speak-
ing chief of the South. I trust all the good people will remember
them."
COLORADO SPRINGS.
Colorado Springs was settled in 1871 by a colony, after the manner
of Greeley, on a temperance and Christian basis. It is seventy-five
miles from Denver, by the Denver & Rio Grande Railway, and con-
tains a population of over six thousand.
The first object to awaken the admiration of the tourist, on alighting
at the station,
is the unique
and beautiful
public house,
erected at an ex-
pense of one
hundred and fif-
ty thousand dol-
lars.
The artistic
design and har-
m o n i o u s ap-
pointments of
this hotel arrest
the attention at once. Inside it is as beautiful as it is outside. All
the furniture is of new designs and of the finest workmanship.
No two rooms are furnished alike. Altogether, it is a gem of archi-
tectural beauty.
The location of the town is delightful, situated as it is at the foot of
the Rocky Mountains, on a magnificent mesa, spreading out to the east
in a landscape of enchanting loveliness. Its streets are one hundred
THE ANTLERS.
390
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
feet wide, laid out at right angles, and lined with seven thousand cotton-
wood trees. In the centre is a fine park, and in every direction are de-
lightful drives for pleasure-seekers and invalids. Hundreds of the
latter class are included in its population, drawn there in the pursuit
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 39 1
of health. The city has all the modern improvements, water-works,
gas, fire department, etc. Drinking-water is brought from the moun-
tains, pure, sparkling, and delicious. Three banks, two daily papers,
graded schools, a college, churches of different denominations, several
hotels and large boarding-houses, the telegraph and telephone, are
among its live institutions. '' Colorado College " is located here,
its principal building being an imposing structure, built of pink
volcanic limestone, at an expense of forty thousand dollars. The
institution is designed to furnish both sexes with the facilities of
" a higher education." The college is situated on a spot where
antelopes were feeding and Indians were taking scalps a few years
ago.
"The town has twenty-one miles of trees, upon streets a hundred
feet wide, or avenues of one hundred and forty. Four rows of trees
upon one street extend two miles. Three private residences, built of
stone, cost ;^8o,ooo ; the High School building, ^25,000; the Deaf,
Dumb, and Blind Asylum, ^25,000 ; and the Opera House, $75,000.
Pike's Peak rises not far off, and smaller mountains plant their feet
within a mile or two of the town. The unsurpassed splendors of
of Glen Eyrie, Queen's Canon, the Garden of the Gods, Manitou
Mineral Springs, Ute Pass, and Cheyenne Canon — all within five
miles of the town — attract tourists from all the world. Any one of
these famous resorts would make the fortune of a watering-place in
the East. Professor Hayden says that he never saw so wonderful
a combination of grand scenery in the neighborhood of any other
medical springs." ^
THE PACIFIC SLOPE.
The discovery of gold in 1848 was the making of California. The
growth and enterprise of its two large cities — San Francisco and
Sacramento — are indeed marvellous. In less than forty years, the
population of the former has grown to nearly four hundred thousand,
and the latter to nearly fifty thousand, the aggregate of their busi-
ness being almost fabulous. The completion of the Union Pacific
Railroad established a direct route for travel and commerce, by the
way of San Francisco, to China, South America, Sandwich Islands,
Australia, New Zealand, and other countries, so that imports from
those foreign countries can be transferred from the carrying vessels
1 Rev. E. P. Tenney.
392 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
to the cars of the Pacific Railway, and taken through to Boston
without change. Fifty large steamships now sail from the bay of
San Francisco to different parts of the world, while hundreds of sail-
ing-vessels are kept busy in the mighty commerce which has sprung
up where forty years ago there was none.
In art, science, schools, literature, learning, and religion, these
young cities vie with the most famous cities of the East. A more
intelligent, enterprising, refined, and prosperous people cannot be
found on the globe. Their tact, ability, energy, and indomitable
perseverance are stamped upon their institutions.
August I, 1867, San Francisco contained a population of 131,000,
about 40,000 of them being twenty-one years of age and under. The
number of school children at that time under fifteen years of age was
34,710. The year ending June 30, 1867, 1,050 buildings were erect-
ed in the city, 340 of which were brick. Cost of improvements for
the same time was ^9,000,000. The sales of real estate for the first
seven months of 1867 were $10,000,000, and ;^ 1,000,000 were laid out
on the streets and highways.
That the spirit of enterprise had risen to high-water mark at that
time is manifest from the elegance and cost of some of the public
buildings erected, as follows : —
Bank of California, $275,000 ; Mercantile Library, $1 10,000 ; Mer-
chant's Exchange, $190,000; Oriental Buildings, $200,000; Blond-
ing and Pringle's Block, $70,000 ; Hayward's Building, $90,000 ;
Savings Union Building, $50,000; Trinity Church, $75,000; Mur-
phy, Grant & Co.'s Block, $170,000; enlargement and improvement
of Lick House, $175,000; Dr. Scudder's Church, $64,000; Alms-
house, $60,000; additions to Occidental Hotel, $125,000.
Seven years previous to the aforesaid date, the school population
increased three hundred per cent in seven years ; and during the
year mentioned, eight commodious schoolhouses were erected. At
that time, also, there were seventy private educational institutions, in
which there were 4,250 students. That religious instruction kept
pace with the intellectual, on the whole, appears from the fact that,
connected with the many churches, were about fifty Protestant Sun-
day-schools in which nearly seven thousand pupils were taught, and
more than four thousand in the Catholic and Hebrew schools. The
Sabbath-school libraries of the city at that time contained 37,927
volumes.
Their generosity and large-mindedness appear in their noble plans
and work for the present and coming generations. Perhaps in no
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
393
way can we exhibit these elements of character so plainly as we can
by illustrations of their public works.
*'The State Capitol is one of the first objects which meets the eye
when approaching Sacramento from the east. It is a conspicuous
landmark. ■ The building occupies the centre of four blocks, bounded
by Tenth and Twelfth, and by L and N Streets. The grounds form
three terraces, slightly eleva'ted above each other, and connected by
easy flights of steps. They are regularly laid out, and covered with a
STATE CAPITOL.
beautiful sward, closely shaven by the lawn-cutter. They are inter-
planted with shrubs and evergreen trees. The outer border of the
lowest terrace is studded with flowers. Its front is toward Tenth
Street, and is three hundred and fifty feet long. Approaching it from
this point, you may regard it as a great central building, from which
rises the lofty dome, and having on each side a large wing. A flight of
granite steps, twenty-five feet high by eighty feet in width, leads to
a front portico of ten columns, through which, and a large hall, the
394
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
rotunda of seventy-two feet diameter is found in the centre ; and
from this, in each story, halls, elegantly arched, extend through the
front and wings, — the state offices being on either side. Five female
figures ornament the front above the columns. The central one is
standing ; the remaining four are in sitting postures. They repre-
sent war, science, agriculture, and mining. The wings, forming the
flanks of the building, are one hundred and sixty-four feet above the
first or basement story. The north and south flanks of the building
form, respectively, the Assembly and Senate Chambers, the former
being eighty-two by seventy-two feet, and the latter -seventy-two by
sixty-two feet. In the rear centre, a circular projection of sixty feet
diameter forms the State Library. The first story, of twenty-five feet.
CITY HALL.
is of white granite, from neighboring quarries, and is surmounted by
a cornice of the same. Above this, the body of the main dome is
surrounded by an open balcony, which is supported by twenty-four
fluted Corinthian columns and an equal number of pilasters. Above
this balcony, the body of the dome is supported by an equal number
of ornamental pilasters. From these rises the great metallic dome.
From the top of this dome, in turn, rise twelve fluted Corinthian pil-
lars, which support the final or small dome, and this is surmounted
by the statue of California.
''The whole interior is one solid mass of iron and masonry. The
dome of the interior rotunda, which is of iron ornaments and brick-
work, is exceedingly handsome. The panels and pedestals under the
windows are of the beautiful laurel, — well known in California for
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
395
its susceptibility to receive a high polish. All the first-floor doors
are of walnut, with laurel panels ; as are also the sashes throughout
the building. The stories are, respectively, twenty-one feet six
inches, twenty feet, and eighteen feet in height. It covers, with its
angles, nearly sixty thousand surface feet of ground, and measures
over one thousand two hundred lineal feet round in all the angles." ^
San Francisco can show a larger number of costly and elegant
public buildings than most of Eastern cities. Perhaps none, of her
PALACE HOTEL.
Structures, however, awaken the pride of a genuine Franciscan like
the famous City Hall, which cost five million dollars. The illustra-
tion shows the reader that it was planned on a grand scale, and
carried to completion in accordance with the highest rules of architec-
ture. A view of it suggests to the observer, enterprise, foresight,
public spirit, and genei'osity on the part of tax-payers, and accommo-
dation, convenience, utility, and comfort for the busy officials of the
city government. It is both an ornament and honor to the city.
1 Crofutt.
39^ MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Palace Hotel is the largest hotel in the world. It occupies one
entire block, three hundred and forty-four by two hundred and sixty-
five feet. It is seven stories high (one hundred and fifteen feet). It is
built in the most substantial manner. The foundation-walls are
twelve feet thick, — all others ranging from one and one-half to four
and one-half feet in thickness. "The foundation-walls, at their base,
are built with inverted arches. All exterior, interior, and partition
walls, at every five feet, commencing from the bottom of the founda-
tion, are banded together with bars of iron, forming, as it were, a
perfect iron basket-work, filled in with brick. The quantity of iron
so used increases in every story towards the roof ; and in the upper
story the iron-bands are only two feet apart. The roof is of tin, the
partitions of brick, and the cornice of zinc and iron. Besides the
city water-works, a supply of water comes from four artesian wells
of a ten-inch bore, which have a capacity of twenty-eight thousand
gallons per hour. A reservoir is located under the central court,
capable of holding six hundred and thirty thousand gallons. On the
roof are seven tanks, which hold one hundred and twenty-eight thou-
sand gallons. The hotel is supplied with two steam force-pumps for
water, two additional for fire, and five elevators." The whole cost of
the structure was six million five Jnmdi'cd tJiousajid dollars.
Golden Gate Park is one of the largest ajid finest parks in the
world. It contains over a thousand acres, and is laid out in the most
tasteful and charming manner. The conservatory is an extensive
and imposing structure, admirably arranged for the purposes for
which it was reared. Of all the great parks of the world, this is said
to be the most picturesque and delightful. Its resources for variety
of arboriculture are many and great. Nearly all semi-tropical fruits
grow luxuriantly in it, thus affording one of the most interesting
features possible in a park, — trees and shrubs of many climates
growing together in wondrous beauty. It is located on the shore
of the bay, another attraction that challenges description. Tree-
planting and general improvement is constantly advancing at an
annual outlay that would make the tax-payers of some eastern cities
exceedingly nervous.
San Francisco is noted for its palatial residences. The following
residence of Charles Crocker is one of the most expensive and attrac-
tive dwelling-houses in our country. It is large enough and good
enough for a king. Indeed, a king built it, — one of the kings found
among the sovereign people of America, where all are sovereigns.
Outside, inside, and surroundings are as complete and near perfec-
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
397
It is a study in architectural plans and
tion as money could assure,
finish.
The Lick Observatory, situated on Mount Hamilton, about fifty
m.les from San Francisco, was the gift of James Lick to the Univer"^
s.ty of Cahfornia. The illustration on the opposite page furnishes a
v.ew of the observatory and the residence of the astronomers
eccentrit' nTr/ f"f' ^^"'^"' --i'^--- selfish, unamiable, and
mmt ^'n d'spos.t.on of his estate, amounting to four
mdhon dol ars, was a surprise to everybody. He was the last man
of whom the pubhc would have expected large bequests; andlh"
RESIDENCE OF CHARLES CROCKER
last too, from whom certain benevolent societies would have ex-
pected mun.ficent gifts. His most intimate friend would not have
Bu'tThf ' T:TV "°"'' ""'^^ ^-" ^ "°-'y °f ^^ es ate
Jredtho"'";. 1','''"^''^^""'^'''^"'' he bequeathed seven hun-
and ,oH . Z- r *'" ""^J^^'- "■= "'"^d one hundred thou-
sand dollars to establish "The Old Ladies' Home " at San Francisco •
Zc ""f br"?^ ''°"""' ^'°"=^^^ f"-- '•^^ --^-" -d -^e:
nance of publ.c baths; one hundred thousand dollars for a group of
'rr T71 Tt'^t"^ ''" '^"'°^y °^ C^"^"--"'^' '° be erected
at he cty hall of San Francisco ; five hundred and forty thousand
dollars for the establishment of a school of mechanical arts; with
398
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
many smaller legacies to individuals and organizations. He must
have been a patriotic man, for he left sixty thousand dollars for a
bronze monument to be erected in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco,
'* to the memory of Francis Scott Key, author of the song, * The
Star-Spangled Banner.'"
A romantic story is told of his early life. He fell in love with a
miller's daughter, who responded gladly to his attentions at first, but
her father opposed the match. Young Lick was not a favorite of his.
LICK OBSERVATORY.
Finally he relinquished the idea of wooing the maiden, but resolved
that he would beat the irrepressible miller some day on a mill. That
was in Fredericksburg, Penn., from which place he drifted away,
lived for a series of years in Buenos Ayres and Valparaiso, whence
he removed to California in 1847. There, near San Jose, he erected
his mill to beat the Pennsylvania miller. It cost him two hundred
thousand dollars. It was finished in the most costly California
woods, highly polished, and was, indeed, the most expensive mill
ever built. The Pennsylvania miller "had gone before " when the
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 399
purpose of Lick was accomplished, but the latter enjoyed it all the
same.
Mr. Lick selected the spot on which the observatory should stand,
and it was inaccessible at the time. The United States government
owned the land, and Congress granted sixteen hundred acres of it
for the uses of the observatory. The county of Santa Clara, in
which Mount Hamilton is, fulfilled another condition of Mr. Lick's
will, and built a road to the summit at an expense of seventy-five
thousand dollars. This road is twenty miles in length, and is called
Lick Avenue, one of the finest avenues in all the West.
The will required for the observatory '' a powerful telescope, supe-
rior to and more powerful than any telescope yet made." Such a
telescope has been in process of construction, and, at this time of
writing, is nearly completed. One who has travelled this avenue
says : ''The grade in no place exceeds six feet and three-quarters in
one hundred feet. There is no part of it where a carriage team can-
not trot comfortably up the grade."
Work on the Lick Observatory began July 23, 1880, and a great
work it was : for every sort of material used, as well as tools, — even
food and water, — had to be transported to the top of the mountain.
Subsequently, however, a spring was discovered three hundred and
ten feet below the summit, and a bed of brick-clay eight hundred feet
below, all of which were utilized. As soon as possible, a reservoir,
capable of holding three hundred thousand gallons, was constructed
on the highest peak, by excavating a solid rock.
The observatory is two hundred and eighty-seven feet in length,
— a transit-house, meridian circle, a photo-heliograph and heliostat,
and a photograph-house. The main building stands nearly due north
and south, and fronts the west. The location for astronomical pur-
poses is the best possible. The observatory will be completed some-
time in 1888.
California boasts several remarkable health resorts, to which
thousands of invalids and tourists go. One of these is Monterey, an
ancient town, built almost entirely of adobe. Monterey early became
the capital of the Territory ; and many of the governors under Span-
ish, Mexican, and American rule made it their homes. The town is
situated upon the slope of a hill overlooking the beautiful bay ; and
one mile distant, in a magnificent grove, stands the famous Hotel del
Monte. Its style is Gothic ; and it cost tivo Jiuiidrcd and fifty tJioii-
sajtd dollars. The grounds embrace one hundred and twenty-six
acres, the most of them laid out in lawns and gardens filled with the
400
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
rarest flowers. Forty or fifty trained gardeners are kept at work,
under the directions of Mr. R. Ulrich, beautifying this charming
park. The bathing-beach is inferior to none in the world ; and, to
accommodate visitors who need a warmer temperature than the surf
affords, a luxurious
swimming-bath has
been erected, at an
expense of seventy-
five tJiousand dol-
lars. The hotel
itself is an artis-
tic and imposing
structure, elegant-
ly furnished, and
ably conducted.
To supply the ho-
tel and estate with
water, Carmel
River was tapped,
and the water
brought in pipes,
at an expense of
more than half a
million of dollars.
Since writing
the foregoing, this
costly hotel has
been destroyed by
fire, — the work of
an incendiary. It
will be rebuilt im-
mediately, at a cost
of one hundred and
fifty thousand dol-
lars more than the
structure burned.
Passadena is a beautiful location eight miles from Los Angeles.
It has become a very popular health resort, possessing some charac-
teristics that do not belong to other resorts of California. Eastern
people of wealth have gone there in search of health, and have
erected fine residences, surrounding them with orange trees and the
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
401
rarest flowers, converting the place into an earthly paradise. Upon
the most commanding eminence stands the new hotel, — *'The Ray-
mond,"— erected at an expense of three Jnmdred tJioiisand dollars^
and opened in November, 1886. The main building is two hundred
and eighty-seven feet long, facing the south, A veranda, fifteen feet
wide, extends around nearly the whole structure, affording a contin-
uous promenade of a quarter of a mile. An elevator runs from the
402
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
cellar to the observatory. The house is elegant in every particular,
and is provided with every modern convenience, — gas, telephone,
telegraph, postal facilities, etc. It is erected by the Raymond Ex-
cursion Company, whose parties make it their winter quarters ; and
splendid quarters they are.
We shall close this third department of our work by calling atten-
tion to a marvel of a public house in New Mexico.
Las Vegas Hot Springs derives its name from the town of New
Mexico, in which it is situated, — a place of eight thousand inhabi-
tants. The hotel is one of the finest structures of the kind in the
HOTEL, LAS VEGAS HOT SPRINGS.
United States, and takes the place of the noted *' Montezuma," which
was burned in January, 1884. It occupies another and more com-
manding location on the side of the mountain. It is constructed of
solid stone, and is as nearly as possible fire-proof. It contains three
hundred rooms furnished in the finest style of which modern art is
capable, and while varying in style and decoration, one room is about
as good as another. The ladies' and gentlemen's reception rooms
are large and elaborately finished in hard woods, and elegantly fur-
nished. There is a general and beautiful parlor on each floor. The
carpets were made to order, after original designs, without regard to
expense, and the window draperies are a superb match for the carpets.
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 403
One angle of the building is ornamented with a tower, from the
various stories of which the grandest views of nature are taken in.
Around the front and sides of the building are wide balconies, fur-
nished with every sort of an easy and invalid chair invented for
loungers and patients.
The grounds are ample and beautifully laid out, with the attrac-
tions of a museum, aviary, zoological collection, green-house, etc.
Postal, telephone, and telegraphic connection with the outside world
are complete.
Invalids, tourists, and pleasure-seekers from all parts of the United
States, and even from foreign countries, are the patrons of this mag-
nificent hotel, which is six miles by rail from the centre of the town.
Such is a bird's-eye view of the almost incredible progress of the
New West. No " wilderness and solitary place " was ever so speedily
transformed into a populous and thriving country before. Consult
the map of the New West as it was, with the '' Great American Des-
ert " stretching hundreds of miles over its vast territory in painful
desolation ; and contrast it with the map of the New West as it now
is, interlaced with railway track, peopled by the most adventurous
and enterprising men and women from every quarter of the globe,
dotted with populous and wealthy cities that have grown into power
and beauty as if by magic, commerce appropriating every mountain
and valley, lake and river to its mighty growth, and Christian civiliza-
tion crowning the whole with the benediction of Almighty God.
Such another marvel is not found on the face of the earth, so unique,
so original, so magnificent. Some one has said that thirty years ago
a railroad over the Rocky Mountains to the sea was only an idea,
while the "Great American Desert" was 2ifact ; but now the idea is
a stubborn fact, and the Desert has ceased to be. Marvellous trans-
formation ! An empire of magic, bedecked with jewels and crowned
with gold !
Nor can we stop here. Imagination attempts to portray the
scene when fifty and a hundred years more of progress have passed
away. When all the public lands are appropriated to the growing
industries ; when the inventions and discoveries of art and science
have enabled human enterprise to swell the harvest of precious met-
als to untold millions ; when a teeming population dots the vast
domain with towns and cities that surpass their sister municipalities
of the East in wealth and enterprise, and when learning and religion
have founded the finest schools and universities, and reared the cost-
liest temples for the worship of God from the banks of the Missouri
404 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
to the Pacific Slope, then will the dwellers in our land, and other
lands, behold here a national growth and consummation without a
parallel in human history.
THE MORMON SETTLEMENT.
Whatever may be said of the immoralities and corruption of the
Mormon system, as a business enterprise it is conceded to be a
marvel. The sacrifice, courage, and indomitable spirit incident to a
journey over the Rocky Mountains to Utah forty years ago, for the
purpose of colonizing in the "vast wilderness," so remote from civili-
zation that Gentile interference would be quite impossible, is suffi-
cient evidence of zeal and daring enterprise.
Salt Lake City, or '' Zion," as the city is called by many Mormons,
has a population of about thirty thousand. It is a beautiful city,
handsomely laid out, with wide streets running at right angles and
lined with thrifty shade trees. Irrigating ditches lend a charm to
the town, by distributing the clear, pure, sparkling Rocky Mountain
water through all the streets. Large public buildings and costly busi-
ness blocks adorn the city, and everywhere there is the appearance
of thrift and enterprise.
The illustration on the following page exhibits Assembly Hall
on the left, the Tabernacle in the centre, and the new, unfinished
Temple on the right. The Tabernacle is an immense building, two
hundred and fifty feet long, and one hundred and fifty feet wide.
The roof is supported by forty-six columns of cut sandstone, and is
the largest self-sustaining roof in the United States, with the excep-
tion of the Grand Union Depot of New York. The ceiling of the roof
is sixty-five feet above the floor. At one end of the building is the
largest organ in the country, with a single exception. The audience
room will seat eight thousand people. The Temple is a mammoth
structure, and, at this time of writing, is nearly completed. It is
located on the eastern half of the same block with the Tabernacle.
The dimensions of its foundation are 99x1 86 J feet. The build-
ing is two hundred feet long, and one hundred feet wide. The foun-
dations are laid sixteen feet below the surface of the earth, and are
sixteen feet in thickness. The walls are nine feet and nine inches
thick, built of light-gray granite. The three towers on each end
of the building are very graceful and ornamental, the two central
ones rising two hundred feet, containing a circular stairway winding
around a column four feet in diameter.
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE.
405
The corner-stone of this building was laid April 6, 1853, with the
expectation that thirty years would be required to complete it. Its cost
will be nearly /b?/r inil-
lion dollars. Like the
Tabernacle, it is one of
the most remarkable
public buildings on
this continent.
Mormon business is
conducted on the co-
operative plan, — one
great company being
organized to purchase
goods in large quanti-
ties for all the Mor-
mon settlements. This
company bears the
name of " Zion's Co-
operative Mercantile
Institution." Its head-
quarters are in Salt
Lake City, in an im-
mense building of
brick, three hundred
and eighteen feet long
by fifty-three feet wide,
three stories above the
cellar. An addition to
this building, twenty-
five by one hundred
and ninety-five feet,
used for a warehouse,
has been erected at an
expense of $175,000.
The business trans-
acted here annually
amounts to millions of
dollars.
As an agricultural community, the Mormon settlement has proved
a great success. By means of irrigation, the Mormons have made
the desert to blossom literally as the rose, — "Jordan Valley" is
406 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
transformed into a garden of wondrous beauty. Beyond the fondest
dream of thrift and plenty, a wealth of products rewards the hus-
bandman for his labors to reclaim these desert lands.
That such a city and such a people should exist to-day, where,
forty years ago, for a thousand miles around, there was not a civilized
abode, is a marvellous fact. Should another forty years achieve an
equal advance throughout that grand mountain domain, the reality
will challenge the wonder of mankind.
RAILROAD KINGS.
We add to the foregoing marvels of enterprise, the portraits and
brief biographies of seven Railroad Kings, — public men who have
contributed largely to the progress of the New West, by constructing
railroads. Some of these life-sketches are given just as they have
been published to the world before ; others have been prepared from
reliable data for this volume. All of them are marked examples of
industry, perseverance, tact, enterprise, courage, and integrity, which
the young men of our country may study with profit ; for each one
of them was "the artificer of his own fortune."
Mark Hopkins (deceased) should have been included in this list of
Railroad Kings, and we spared no pains to secure his portrait and
life-sketch ; and, after all, failed. It is only left for us to say that he
was a railroad king.
OAKES AMES.
Oakes Ames, eldest son of Oliver and Susannah Ames, was born
in Easton, Dec. lO, 1804. His father removed from Bridgewater to
Easton in 1803, because the water-power there was better for his
business, — the manufacture of shovels. He purchased a farm, also,
on which Oakes worked more or less as soon as he was old enough,
and that was very early. Subsequently he assisted in the shovel
factory when he was out of school, as inclined to industry as he was
to obedience.
District schools were short and poor, but Oakes got more out of
them than many boys, on account of his thoughtfulness and applica-
tion. He went to school to learn — and he learned, as he went into
the shop to work — and he worked. Until he was sixteen years of
age, he had no opportunities for education, except what the district
school furnished. Then he attended Dighton Academy a few
RAILROAD KINGS.
408 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
months, as a kind of conclusion to his education, when he entered
upon his life-pursuit in the shovel factory.
Oakes was a large, stout boy, full of life and energy, willing and
ambitious. He progressed rapidly in shovel-making, and soon made
himself indispensable to his father's business. On reaching his ma-
jority, or soon after, he became superintendent of the factory, in which
position he won the confidence and respect of all the employees.
In 1844, his father became sixty-five years of age, when he with-
drew from active participation in the business, and the two sons,
Oakes and Oliver, became the sole managers ; and the firm was
known as Oliver Ames & Sons. From year to year their business
extended, until they employed nearly five hundred men ; and one
thousand tons of iron, two thousand tons of steel, and five thousand
tons of coal passed annually through their hands, in the manufacture
of shovels. Their manufactures were always first-class. In every
market the trade-mark of the company was recognized as the syno-
nyme of honest and thorough work. A shovel was a shovel, good and
true. There was no approximation to sham production in the estab-
lishment. At the dedication of the " Oakes Ames Memorial Hall,"
presented by his sons to the town of Easton, Judge Thomas Russell
said : —
"A Boston merchant told me that he made a wagon journey of a
thousand miles in South Africa, and among all the Boers and Bush-
men and half-breeds, he never found men so ignorant, or kraals so
small, that they didn't have and appreciate Ames' shovels. To
them the mystic letters ' Oliver Ames & Sons ' meant honest mate-
rials and faithful work. It was more wonderful because they were
not used to it. From another quarter they receive guns that go off
at the wrong time and at the wrong place ; rum that will neither
cheer nor inebriate (that wouldn't trouble any of this family) ; knives
that will not scalp — no, not even scalp a railroad ticket. It is
pleasant in this age of shams, to know that at the Cape of Good
Hope, in Australia, in New Zealand, at the ends of the earth, and in
the farthest islands of the sea, this old Massachusetts brand, — this
Old Colony brand, — stands all the world over for thorough work,
tough as ash and true as steel."
Even his shovels praised him.
Judge Russell's remark in parenthesis was a tribute paid to the
temperance principles of the firm, clear back to the father. Oakes
Ames was a teetotaler, and a most uncompromising foe to the
saloon. An eye-witness informed us, that, at one time, when he was
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 409
a member of the State Department, the officers visited the public in-
stitutions, At one of them, the superintendent flung open a cupboard
door, where intoxicating liquors were displayed, and invited the com-
pany to drink. Oakes Ames was indignant. Instead of accepting
the invitation, he expressed his surprise that State officers should be
invited to drink in an almshouse. *' Four-fifths of the inmates are
brought here through drink," he said, "and it is a disgrace and shame
that liquors are brought in here at all." And he went on, pouring
out invective upon the curse of strong drink, until the superinten-
dent hung his head, and the whole company declined his invitation.
My informant said, that, in consequence, the liquors were all cleaned
out of the institution.
In i860, when the country was on the eve of an unparalleled civil
war, Oakes Ames was elected to a place on the governor's council.
Every one who knew him, said, ''He is just the man for Governor
Andrew's cabinet." In this way he was introduced into political life.
The war came on ; and Governor Andrew said, " He should be sent
to Congress, where the wisdom and patriotism of such men are
needed in this crisis." The voters of the second district thought as
Governor Andrew did, and, by a triumphant vote, sent him to the
Thirty-Eighth Congress. For ten years he continued to fill the posi-
tion with marked ability and fidelity.
In July, 1862, Congress passed an act authorizing the construction
of the Union Pacific Railroad. Mr. Ames was deeply interested in
the project. But capitalists had too little faith in the enterprise ; they
withheld their capital. Two years later, the whole thing came to a
stand-still, and was in danger of absolute failure, for the want of
brains and enterprise. Oakes Ames was besought to interpose and
save the road. President Lincoln entreated him, members of Con-
gress urged him, public men, in different parts of the country, im-
portuned him. Finally, he was fairly persuaded to undertake the
Herculean task. This was in the autumn of 1865 ; and from the
moment he consented to prosecute the mammoth enterprise, —
greater than any American citizen had undertaken before, — the
anxious public felt assured that the Union Pacific Railroad was
an established fact. When President Lincoln had signed the con-
tract for building the road, rising from his seat, and throwing his
right arm over the broad shoulder of Ames, he said, " Your name,
Mr. Ames, will live longer in history than mine."
We have no room to record the labors and sacrifices of Mr. Ames
in the construction of the road. It was completed in about three
41 0 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
years, — seven years less time than the government allowed in its
contract. General Butler said : *' Without him, I am of the confident
belief that that great link which binds the East and the West to-
gether, in the bond which we all trust will never be severed, would
not have been made in this generation, if at all. . . . With an
energy never faltering, with a directness never swerving, with a
faith never failing, he stood behind it, pushing it forward, with the
belief that it was as necessary for the unification of the country as
was the successful termination of the war itself."
Senator Dawes said, in the United States senate-chamber : *' I
have a colleague who has adorned his calling through a long life of
industry ; who has carried greater loads upon his shoulders, and
worked out greater problems in the development of the resources of
the country than any man connected with the material interest or
enterprise in the whole United States. A grateful nation will yet
rear his monument, and its inscription will be, The Builder of
THE Union Pacific Railroad."
We have no heart to narrate the trials inflicted upon him by the
cowardice and corruption of political demagogues, in the name of
the Credit Mobilier. That record is one of ingratitude and shame
on the part of truckling politicians, incapable of understanding how
a statesman can execute a great national trust, in which the real-
ization of a fortune is possible, and be honest. To cast aspersion upon
a public man, when, down in their heart of hearts, they believed Oakes
Ames incapable of dishonesty, is a crime of the darkest hue ; and
that was the crime of a majority of the members of Congress in 1873.
A member of Congress said in a speech : " At the hour when
nearly one-half of this Union was struggling to overthrow the other,
when the earth resounded to the tramp of armed men in the field, in
the darkest hour of our fortunes, Oakes Ames came forward, and
placed down eight Juuidrcd tJiousaiid dollars as his subscription, to
send the railroad across the continent that should hold the East and
the West together, because he had seen the North and the South
struggling to separate.
*' I have seen him when bankruptcy and ruin fell upon him,
because he had taken part in this great national work. I have seen
him crushed down to earth with obligations and debts not incurred
for himself, but in the service of his country ; and yet such was the
force of his honesty and integrity of character, that each and all of
his creditors gave him extension of credit, and everv one has been
paid to the uttermost farthing. It is to his credit that he had to
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. .41 I
absent himself from your committee while investigating his honesty,
to go home and do the last act of an honest man, by paying up the
last dollar of his extended debt. Such is Oakes Ames."
The sons of Oakes Ames, in their beautiful memorial volume,
address the reader in the following fitting paragraph : —
" Have the detractors of Oakes Ames ever asked themselves what
motive, except public spirit, could have led a man so situated to
contract to build the road } His own personal interest in the con-
struction company, in December, 1867, was only one-eighth of the
whole. By signing the contract, he made the entire risk his own.
But, in case of profit, seven-eighths of the profit would belong to
others. Why, except from public spirit, should a man worth millions,
and secure in the possession of them, have risked all by becoming
personally responsible, as he did, for the vast sum of forty-seven
million 1 Why else should he have undertaken to find a market for
the securities of the road, and to convert them into money with
which to meet these immense obligations } Why else should he
have given the best years of his life to these colossal cares and
responsibilities .'* For the prosperity of his country, he risked his
own fortune and that of his family, and up to this hour his return
has been, in too many quarters, unmeasured reproach and odium."
At the dedication of the Oakes Ames Memorial Hall already
alluded to, the president of the Massachusetts Senate said : " Better
than these is the consciousness which we have of the worth and
nobility of character of Oakes Ames. His proudest and most
perfect monument is in our hearts, in our deep sense of what he
was. When we think of his massive mould of heart and spirit no
less than in body, of his strength and simplicity, of his inflexibility
and patience amid great undertakings and the heaviest difficulties ;
when we remember the amplitude of the unselfish works accom-
plished by him for mankind, we say of him : —
' Such was our friend ; formed on the good old plan,
A true and brave and downright honest man.'
Such a monument will indeed endure. Every memento which
affection can rear may pass away ; the most enduring work of human
skill to his memory may perish ; from the tablets on the Sierras his
lineaments will crumble and fade and disappear ; while continually
in the generations to come, —
' Death will mould in calm completeness
The statue of his life."' "
412 MARVELS OF THE i\EW WEST.
OLIVER AMES.
Oliver Ames was a worthy and noble brother of Oakes Ames.
He was the third son of Hon. Oliver and Susannah Ames, and
was born at Plymouth, Mass., Nov. 5, 1807. He was seven years
old when his father removed to Easton,i where he lived until he
died, March 3, 1877. He was old enough to render some assist-
ance in the shovel factory which his father established, so that, from
the day he became a resident of Easton, his time was divided be-
tween school and the factory. A busy boyhood and youth was his,
both from inclination and paternal instruction. His obedience and
industry left no time for idleness. All his time belonged to study or
labor. He loved books ; and the schoolroom was always an inviting
place to him. He loved work, also, and the shovel factory had
attractions for him. His marked tact and intelligent comprehension
made him a skilled workman while yet in his youth. Before emerg-
ing from his teens, he could make, with his own hands, as fine a
shovel as any workman in the establishment. At the same time, he
was an extra scholar, and possessed a strong desire for a collegiate
education. It was not, however, until 1828, after being disabled by
a serious accident, that he seriously thought of a college course of
study. It was feared that his injury might prove permanent ; and
this fact brought the subject of Oliver's liberal education to the
front. It was discussed at the family fireside, and the final decision
was that he should go to college. So he entered an academy at
North Andover, Mass., designing to prepare for college, and finally
enter the legal profession, for which his friends thought he possessed
decided talents.
After eighteen months had elapsed, for sufficient reasons, his
plans were changed, and he entered the law office of Wilham Baylis,
Esq., of West Bridgewater, as a student. Close application to study,
together with a constitution that required an active rather than sed-
entary life, soon told upon his health. Physically he broke down ;
and, to his very great disappointment, was compelled to relinquish
the idea of a liberal education. He returned to the shovel factory,
instead of going to college, and there achieved success, which he
shared, through his large wealth, with the public.
He married Sarah, daughter of Hon. Howard Lothrop, of Easton,
1 His father had removed from Easton to Plymouth to start a new enterprise, still con-
tinuing his business in Easton, to which place he returned in 1814.
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 413
in June, 1833; and, in 1844, he entered into partnership with his
father and brother Oakes, under the name of " O. Ames & Sons."
He was a thorough business man, and devoted his energies, with
unremitting diligence, to the success of their manufactures. At the
same time, his love of learning did not allow of his divorce from in-
tellectual culture. Moments that he could snatch from the claims
of a large and growing business were given to mental improvement.
He was not over twenty years of age when the temperance cause
enlisted his sympathies, and he took the ground of total abstinence,
as a matter of principle. Nor was he any more decided on this ques-
tion than were his father and brother. All of them saw the curse of
drink to the laboring class ; and they united their efforts to expel
intoxicating liquors, not only from the factory, but from the town as
well. When prohibition came, they were prepared for it, and hailed
it as the harbinger of thrift and peace to the workingman's home.
They supported prohibitory legislation, also, as necessary to the
order and success of a manufacturing town. The repeal of the pro-
hibitory law, in 1868, and the substitution of a license law, gave them
an experience out of which, in reply to an inquiry, they made the
following statement to the public : —
** We have over four hundred men in our works here. We find
that the present license law has a very bad effect upon our employ-
ees. On comparing our production in May and June of this year
(1868) with that of the corresponding months of last year (1867), we
find that, in 1867, with three hundred and seventy-five men we pro-
duced eight (8) per cent more goods than we did in the same months
in 1868 with four hundred men. We attribute this large falling off
entirely to the repeal of the prohibitory law and the great increase in
the use of intoxicating liquors among our men in consequence."
The heart, hand, and purse of Oliver Ames were enlisted in the
advancement of the temperance cause. Several times we were a wit-
ness to his annual subscription of one thonsajid dollars to aid a single
State temperance society in its noble work.
He was first a Whig in his political connections, then a Republi-
can, deeply interested in every question pertaining to the abolition of
slavery and the prosperity of his country. He was a member of the
State Senate in 1852 and 1857, distinguished for his clear, sharp dis-
crimination on public questions, and non-partisan spirit. He was
ready in debate, earnest and direct, and never failed to hold his hear-
ers to the close. He often spoke in public on political questions of
the hour ; and few speakers ever carried conviction with more cer-
414 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
tainty to his hearers than he, although he laid no claim to ora-
tory.
In 1855, the O. Ames & Sons built the Easton branch railroad;
and from that time their attention was called to the railroad as an
important factor in the development of the resources of our country.
So that, when the Union Pacific enterprise had come to a stand-still,
with a fair prosj^ect of its being abandoned, these patriotic and enter-
prising brothers came to the rescue. We have heard Oliver say that
when Oakes first disclosed to him his purpose concerning this trans-
continental railway, he promptly discouraged the undertaking, because
of the immense business that was already taxing their energies to the
utmost. But the unselfish and patriotic devotion of his brother to
the enterprise, and the critical demands of the hour, soon removed
every objection, and the brothers were one in a settled determination
to complete the road. From 1866 to March, 1871, Oliver Ames was
president of the company. Another says: ''His sound judgment,
business capacity, and inflexible honesty were of immense service in
carrying this great enterprise safely, through difficulty and peril, to
final success."
Public confidence in Oliver Ames was unlimited. His wisdom,
efficiency, and integrity were sought by great enterprises and philan-
thropic institutions. He was President of the National Bank of
Easton, the Ames Plow Company, and the Kinsley Iron and Machine
Company. He was a director, also, in several banks, including the
Bristol County National Bank. He was a director, too, in the Union
Pacific, Atlantic and Pacific, Kansas Pacific, Denver Pacific, Colorado
Central, Old Colony and Newport Railroads, not to mention others.
These are only a portion of the public trusts which he carried ; for
the cause of education, philanthropy, and reform, as well as agri-
cultural, historical, and other societies, were continually taxing his
attention and benevolence.
He was a Unitarian in his religious connections, constant in his
attendance upon public worship, and for several years was a Sunday-
school superintendent. He built and presented to his church in
North Easton their beautiful house of worship, also their fine par*
sonage, corresponding in architecture with the church. At his death
he left a large fund to keep the church and parsonage in repair, and
another to improve the cemetery.
The news of his death spread sadness far and wide ; for everybody
who knew him wanted he should live. His simplicity, generosity,
and purity of character endeared him to a host of friends in private
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 415
and public circles. When he died they realized the loss of a great
benefactor and true friend.
Rev. L. H. Sheldon, an Orthodox clergyman of the town, preached
a sermon to young men on the life and character of Mr. Ames, in
which he held up the good man as a model for them to copy. We
close this sketch with brief extracts from that noble tribute to the
memory of an extraordinary man : —
" In a marked degree has the life of an honored citizen, just now
closed, by its integrity, its generosity, its wisdom, its enterprise, its
hearty and enlightened sympathy with the unfortunate of every class,
and with the friends of education and religion, and by its love of
truth and virtue and every manly and noble trait, presented to us,
to the whole community, and to strangers from abroad, its great
worth while enjoyed, and its great loss when taken.
" He needs no emblazoned tablet to set forth his virtues or sound
his praise. Though dead, he lives in the works of national renown
to which he gave his intellectual energy and his personal supervision ;
in the hearts of the people among whom he displayed his rare wis-
dom, his calm judgment, his business thrift, and his unquestioned
integrity and generosity. Ah, yes ! he still lives, and will live in the
intelligence and virtue of the children whose minds and hearts shall be
blessed by his munificent remembrance, as they enter the room for
mental training ; as they open the word of God in His courts, and
sing the songs of Zion in the house of religious worship ; or, as with
solemn tread, they follow the remains of departed loved ones to their
last resting-place, amid the quiet and the beauty that his own hand
hath prepared. And once more : he will never die in that cherished
home which his love, intelligence, and virtue ever adorned, sanctified,
and sweetened, while the hallowed memories of the past, and the
varied achievements of the present, remain as the reminders of the
untold worth of such a character in its influence upon the dawning
life of the young, to whose hands are committed the great and good
works still to be sustained and perfected."
The last words of this beloved man were, '' It is all right."
We only add, from a personal acquaintance with Oakes and Oli-
ver Ames, we can truly say that no eulogy of such noble charac-
ters is extravagant.
The Union Pacific Railroad Company testified to their respect for
Oakes and Oliver Ames, and their just appreciation of their public
labors, by erecting a monument to their memory at Sherman. The
following is an excellent view of it : —
4i6
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
MONUMENT IN MEMORY OF OAKES AMES AND OLIVER AMES.
Erected by the Union Pacific Railway Company at Shernnan, Wyoming Territory, — the highest point reached by
its railroad. Base, 60 feet square. Height, 60 feet. Summit, 8,350 feet above level of the sea.
C. p. HUNTINGTON.
A Connecticut boy of less than twelve years was employed by a
neighbor to pile a lot of wood. The boy belonged to a family of chil-
dren as numerous as they were poor, each one, at an early age, com-
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 4^17
pelled by force of circumstances to shift for himself. This was the
lad's first job of any account. The wood was piled neatly in the
shed, the chips gathered up, and the ground swept with an old
broom, so that the proprietor exclaimed, when he saw the thorough-
ness of the boy's work : " Neat as a pin ! Here's a dollar for you ;
and I think you must have the job next year." It was the annual
winter's stock of wood the boy had put under cover.
He was delighted both with the dollar and with the praise ; but
on reaching home, he said to his mother, who was delighted with his
success : —
*' My feelings were divided between the dollar and contempt for
the man, who thinks I shall be doing nothing better one year from
now."
Not long thereafter this high-minded lad was ousted from the
family nest by stress of circumstances, and went forth into the great
world for his living. A checkered experience was his for a series of
years, when we discover him running a hardware store in the young
and far-off city of Sacramento. The sign over the store is Hnnting-
ton & Hopkins. The former is the Connecticut boy who piled the
wood ; the latter was an equally aspiring Massachusetts boy grown
into a man. They kept the best goods made, and sold them at a fair
price. Principle governed their traffic in hardware. Their store
was at No. 54 K Street.
Here Leland Stanford, a wholesale grocer, and the two Crocker
Brothers, dry-goods dealers, often came to enjoy the company of the
two congenial spirits in the hardware business. They discussed the
''topics of the times," especially the needs and prospects of Cali-
fornia. All of' them were Republicans, which stood for more than
almost any one dreamed of in i860, the time of which we are speak-
ing. Their store became the headquarters of Republicans, who often
spent their evenings there, discussing the future prospects of the
country.
''A Pacific railroad is the great need of California," said Hunting-
ton, "and, in my opinion, it is practicable." He had often expressed
the same opinion to his partner. There were no dissenting voices in
that group. Indeed, all the more intelligent and enterprising citi-
zens of California believed in a Pacific railroad. They had succeeded
in bringing the subject before Congress, though with no prospect of
immediate success.
Just then there came a man to Sacramento by the name of Judah,
to build the little " Sacramento Valley Railroad." He, too, became
4l8 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
enthused with Huntington's spirit for a railway over the Sierra
Nevadas ; and he borrowed money to defray the expenses for explor-
ing for a pass. Again and again the frequenters at No. 54 K Street
contributed to aid Judah in his engineering, with no definite and
encouraging results. Huntington refused to give any more money
for what seemed to him a profitless work ; and he proposed a meeting
at Stanford's house, and the five leading spirits were there, — Hunt-
ington, Hopkins, Stanford, and the Crocker Brothers. Two other?
were there, — Judah, who died soon after, and another citizen, who
dropped out of the circle. The five named above became the origi-
nators of the Central Pacific Railroad.
'* I will be one of ten or eight," said Huntington, ** to assume all
the expense of making a thorough survey, if Hopkins is willing."
Hopkins was willing, and so were the others ; and, after canvass-
ing the subject thoroughly, it was decided to organize the Central
Pacific Railroad Company. Leland Stanford was made president, C.
P. Huntington vice-president, and Mark Hopkins secretary and
treasurer. These are the officers to-day, except that Hopkins is
dead. It is the only railroad in this country that has not slipped out
of the hands of its originators in a very short time. But the boy who
expected to do something larger and better than piling wood a year
hence, still keeps a firm grip on this world-renowned railway, whose
bonds are as good in Europe now as those of the United States
government.
*'\Ve will pay as we go," said Huntington. ''Never run a dollar
in debt. If we can't pay a hundred workmen, we will pay fifty ; if
we can't pay fifty, we will pay ten ; if we can't pay ten, we will pay
one. We will employ no more men than we can pay." In that way
the road was built.
When the time came for depot headquarters at Sacramento, the
engineer was asked to draft a plan. When his plan was presented
to Huntington, the latter examined it carefully, and inquired : — -
"The cost } "
*' About twelve thousand dollars."
"Very nice plan," Huntington added dryly; "but our business
is rather too small to warrant such an expense now. I think such a
building as this will answer our purpose for the present " ; and, suit-
ing his action to the word, he drew a plan upon the store-door with
chalk ; and his plan was adopted. It was a board building, put up in
a single day, at an expense of one hundred and fifty dollars.^
1 See page 269.
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 4^9
The times that try men's *' souls" came pretty often to Hunting-
ton and his associates. He obtained governmenc aid and State aid,
it is true, but there were so many conditions interposed that trials
multiplied. On returning from New York, at one time, he found the
treasury exhausted ; whereupon he called together his associates, and
the immortal five agreed to keep cigJit Jiundrcd men at work for one
year at their own individual expense !
CHARLES CROCKER.
Charles Crocker was born in the city of Troy, N.Y., Sept. i6,
1822. All the schooling he ever enjoyed was in that city before he
was twelve years of age. His parents were in straitened circum-
stances, so that, at about the age of twelve, Charles began the life of
a newsboy, and earned his own living at that business.
In 1836, when Charles was fourteen years of age, his father
removed to Northern Indiana, and settled upon government land.
Northern Indiana was a wilderness at that time, and the home of
Charles was a log cabin. '* Clearing the land" was the first work
to be done preparatory to farming, and it was new business for
Charles ; but he engaged in it with that spirit and enterprise which
have characterized him ever since.
His mother died in September, 1839, when he was seventeen
years of age, leaving his home desolate indeed. The following
winter a disagreement arose between him and his father, and the
latter resorted to the extreme measure of turning him out of doors,
and bidding him leave. It was in February, and two feet of snow
covered the ground, when he turned his back upon his father's cabin
to face the world. His father meant it for severe punishment, but
it turned out to be his first step on the road to fortune. He was
now just eighteen years of age, and his worldly possessions, on
leaving home, consisted of a cotton shirt, a linen ''dickey," a pair of
socks, and a cotton handkerchief in which the other articles were
wrapped. He had not one cent of money with which to begin life
for himself, and no prospect of having any until he earned it.
His way was through the wilderness ; and after the first night
had set in he reached a farmhouse, the proprietor of which was in
the barnyard with a lantern, feeding his cattle. Charles approached
him and inquired : —
** Are you in want of help } "
420 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
"Well," replied the farmer, "that is a want I usually have. You
want a place ? "
"Yes, sir; that is what I am looking for."
"You are able-bodied," continued the farmer, "and I should
think might be a good worker. I will hire you on trial for a
month."
"Agreed," responded Charles, rejoiced to find a situation so
readily.
At the end of the month, Charles inquired of his employer if he
wanted him any longer.
"Certainly I do," answered the farmer.
"At what wages .-^ " continued Charles.
" For as much as any man in the country gets," was the farmer's
hearty response.
This was a fine compliment to Charles, and speaks well both for
the quantity and quality of his work. He continued to work for the
farmer until the following September, when, for sufficient reasons,
he went to work for John J. Deming in a saw-mill at Mishawaka,
Ind.
While working in the saw-mill, he realized that he needed a better
education ; so the next winter he quit work and attended school,
paying his board to the pastor of the Presbyterian Church by doing
chores. In the spring he went to work for Alphonso Wilson in his
iron foundry. Here his services were so efficient that Mr. Wilson
soon learned to trust him with any part of his business. He was so
apt to acquire methods of doing business, the nature and quality of
materials, and whatever pertained to work in the foundry, that his
services became indispensable to his employer, and he continued to
serve him four or five years. Then he prospected for iron ore in
Marshall County, and was successful. He discovered a rich mine,
and Mr. Wilson furnished capital to run it. The agreement between
them made Charles the sole manager, on a salary of five hundx-ed
dollars, and a quarter share of the entire interest, Mr. Wilson erect-
ing a forge there, and paying for half the land. The firm was known
as Charles Crocker & Co. Thus, in six years from the time his
father turned him out of doors, he was the proprietor of a prosperous
business, and at the same time commanded the confidence of the
public. He continued in this business until 1848, when the gold
excitement of California led him to sell out to Mr. Wilson. Before
the papers were passed, however, the forge was burned to the
ground. This calamity did not dishearten, but only delayed him.
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 42 I
He returned to the scene of the disaster, cleared away the ruins, and
built another forge thereon. Then he made another sale to Mr. Wil-
son, accepting two thousand dollars in cash for his part, and at once
started with a company of young men he organized, one of whom was
his brother, for California. The fire and subsequent labors had delayed
him a full year, but on July 10, 1850, he reached Sacramento. They
repaired immediately to the mines where they toiled without success
for several months. Then Charles decided to engage in the store
business at the mines, but soon removed to Sacramento, where, with
his brother as partner, he entered upon a career that *' led on to
fortune."
In October, 1852, he returned to Indiana, and married the daugh-
ter of John J. Deming, in whose saw-mill he worked so long. One
week after his marriage, he received a message announcing the
burning of his store in Sacramento, and the total loss of all his
goods, the value of which was eighty thousand dollars. This calamity
left him even poorer than he was when he went to California ; but
his pluck and perseverance were left. He started immediately for
Sacramento with his wife, resolved to start business anew on arriving
there. His purpose was promptly executed, and just as he was on
the high tide of prosperity, a few months thereafter, the city was
burned, and then it was overflowed with water to the depth of four
or five feet. But his pluck was neither burned nor drowned, and he
started out again, charged with energy, tact, and hope, and in less
than two years he possessed other thousands.
In 1855 he was a member of the Common Council of Sacramento,
and introduced several important and necessary reforms. In i860 he
represented the city in the State Legislature ; and it was at this time
that he united with C. P. Huntington, Leland Stanford, and Mark
Hopkins in the Central Pacific Railroad enterprise. Having spoken of
this in the sketch of Mr. Huntington's life, we need not repeat it here.
It is sufficient to say that, after the action of Congress organizing the
Union Pacific Railroad, Mr. Crocker took the first eighteen miles of
the Central Pacific to build ; and he built it, of course. He not only
built that, but he also bupt other portions of the road which other
contractors had failed to complete. He organized the *' Contract and
Finance Committee," and was elected president of the same ; and
under his superintendence, the Central Pacific Railroad was pushed
through to Ogden. He built, also, nearly all the local railroads
tributary to the Central Pacific within the limits of California.
It is generally conceded that the Central Pacific Railroad was
422 MARVELS OF THE AEW WEST.
the most gigantic railroad operation in the whole world, when the
tremendous difficulties to be surmounted are considered ; and it has
been the grandest success of all. The action of Congress to assist
the road was hampered by the provision that fifty miles should be
built and equipped with rolling stock, before Congressional aid could
be available. The enterprise would have succumbed at this point,
but for the courage and liberality of Crocker and his three associates
named ; for it required tivcnty million dollai's to construct the first
hundred miles. Of this amount the government subsidy only sup-
plied five millions, and Crocker and his associates were obliged to
supply the remaining fifteen millions. Add to this the tremendous
engineering obstacles to the construction of the road, and the reader
can judge of the spirit, tact, and determination equal to the task.
In 1 87 1 Mr. Crocker was elected president of the Southern
Pacific Railroad, the capital of which was increased, under his admin-
istration, in 1884, to one Jiuncired millions, and was reorganized with
the control of four thousand six hundred and ninety-eight miles of
railroad and four thousand two hundred and five miles of steam-
ship lines, almost nine thousand miles in all. The lease of the
Central Pacific was included in this vast interest. In addition, there
are the Southern Pacific Companies of California, Arizona, and New
Mexico, Morgan's Louisiana and Texas Railroad and Steamship
Company, Galveston Harbor and San Antonio Railway, Texas and
New Orleans Railroad Company, Louisiana Western Railroad Com-
pany, and the Mexican International Railroad Company ; all these
are included in the colossal Southern Pacific Company, of which
Charles Crocker is the animating spirit. The gross earnings of this
company in eight months of 1885, was $19,645,892.91, and, after
paying all expenses, interest, and rentals, the net surplus was
^1,509753.64.
This brief and imperfect sketch gives only a glimpse of a very
remarkable life, the marvellous part of which was crowded into
thirty years. The youth who went out into the world without one
cent in his pocket in 1840, was a millionnaire in 1870, in spite of
fire and flood; and, in 1887, he presente^l to his daughter, on her
wedding day, a costly residence in New York City, and a check for
one million dollars.
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 4^3
LELAND STANFORD.
Ex-Governor Lelancl Stanford, of California, was born in the town
of Watervliet, Albany County, N.Y., March 9, 1824. His father was a
farmer of an enterprising turn, sound integrity, and of unblemished
character. His mother was an intelligent and noble woman, — a very
suitable helpmeet for her industrious and aspiring husband. Their
family consisted of seven sons and one daughter. Leland was the fourth
son, fond of books and reading, full of spirit and hope, and more of
a scholar than either of his brothers. Schools were of inferior grade
compared with schools of to-day; but such as they were he enjoyed
and got more out of them than most of the boys in the district. He
loved his books better than farming, although he followed the latter
with considerable enterprise. He had his daily tasks to perform on
the farm as soon as he was old enough to work, and these he accom-
plished with unusual tact and despatch. "Little grass grew under his
feet, bright and lively as he was ; and he seemed born to activity and
success.
Until twenty years of age, Leland's time was divided between the
school and farm, and then he commenced the study of law. In
1845, he entered the law office of Wheaton, Doolittle & Hadley, in
Albany, N.Y. His heart was set on becoming a lawyer, so that he
improved his opportunities as one who realized that he had no time
to waste on trifles. On completing his studies, the great West
opened its arms to him, as he thought. The profession was crowded
in New York, but there was ample room in the West. He put out
his shingle first in his native state ; but the chance for a young man
was comparatively small, and he soon resolved to adopt Horace
Greeley's advice, — ''Go West, young man!" He packed up his
wardrobe, books, and what not, and off he started for Port Washing-
ton, Wis. This was in 1849, when Port Washington was on the
frontier. Wisconsin was a part of the ''far West" at that time,
— about as distant as young men aspired to go, except those who
responded to the cry of gold ! gold ! on the Pacific Coast. Only one
year before, gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in California, and
there was great excitement in the land over the discovery. But
Leland Stanford was not carried away by the gold mania. He
wanted to practise law ; and a new, thriving, growing town in Wis-
consin was a better place for that business than California. He was
well pleased with his new home, and found no difficulty in working
up a fair business. He was popular, and honored by all who knew
424 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
him. The girls especially regarded him as about the most fasci-
nating and promising young man they ever met ; and one of the num-
ber, Miss Jane Lathrop, decided to unite her fortunes with his, and
in 1850 they were married. A good choice, a good start, and a
noble purpose, combined to make him successful.
But the gold-find in California was calling tens of thousands of
people to that El Dorado, and new towns and cities were springing
up like magic. He saw a new and brighter opening there, and
resolved at once to make the most of his opportunity. Some of his
best friends were going thither, too, and here was another induce-
ment, to keep them company. He settled up his business, packed
his effects, and started for Sacramento, where he landed July 12,
1852. Wasting no time in deciding whether he should practise law
or delve for gold, he left Sacramento for the mines at Michigan Bluff,
on the American River, Placer County. It proved that he was
exceedingly fortunate in selecting a place for mining, for he stepped
right into success with scarcely an introduction. Not only wealth,
but popularity, flowed in upon him, to his surprise. His ability, tact,
enterprise, and real worth, won him friends on every hand. His
public spirit, as well as his fearless advocacy of Republican prin-
ciples, pushed him to the front. In 1859 the Republican party
nominated him for State Treasurer, but the Democratic candidate
defeated him. The Democratic party had never been beaten at that
time ; and it was reserved for Leland Stanford to accomplish this
feat in 1861, when the Republicans nominated him for governor, and
he was elected by a plurality of twenty-three thousand votes. He
became the most popular governor that California had ever had,
and was respected and honored by all classes.
About this time he became interested in the Central Pacific Rail-
road, as we have seen. In Feb. 22 of that year, — Washington's
birthday, — he threw the first shovelful of dirt in the construction of
that road ; and on May 10, 1869, he drove the last spike at Promon-
tory Point, Utah, where the Central and Union Pacific united their
destinies in a grand transcontinental line.
Since that time Mr. Stanford has been prominent in the history of
our country, not only as one of its wealthiest, but one of its most
remarkable men. His wealth is counted by tens of millions, and
both in his State and nation he is a man of influence and power.
He has not only served his State, but his nation, also, in Congress.
In every position, he has proved himself efificient and true, worthy of
the confidence of his countrymen. He has recently given to the
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 4-' 5
State of California twenty millio7i dollars to establish and support a
university at Palo Alto. The purpose of the university is stated in
his own words, as follows : —
"I intend that the Stanford University shall not only give one a
classical education, but that under its roof one may learn telegraphy,
type-setting, type-writing, journalism, book-keeping, farming, civil
engineering, etc. For a number of years prior to its inception,
young men, graduates of Harvard, Yale, and other Eastern colleges,
used to call upon me, bearing letters of introduction, and asking me
to find employment for them. I would learn on examination that,
while their knowledge of Greek and Latin, logic and metaphysics,
might be thorough, they were actually helpless so far as practical
knowledge went. They were willing to learn, it is true ; but the
world is full of unskilled labor, and so I was forced to put them on
the railroad as conductors, brakemen, and firemen, in order that they
might become self-supporting. I then conceived the idea of a univer-
sity from which young men could graduate fully equipped for the
battle of life, in whatever direction the taste might run."
Including his estate at Palo Alto, his munificent gift will amount
to twenty-five million dollars. The corner-stone of the university
was laid on May 14, 1887, which was the nineteenth birthday of Mr.
Stanford's son ; and the various structures will be so far advanced
by January, 1889, as to accommodate several hundred students.
V
SIDNEY DILLON.
Sidney Dillon was president of the Union Pacific Railroad several
years, a representative man, whose life has been identified with large
public works. He was born in Northampton, Montgomery County,
N.Y., May 7, 181 2, seventy-five years ago. His father was a farmer
in good circumstances, and of decided influence in his town. His
grandfather was ditto, a Christian man of unblemished character, as
patriotic as he was industrious, for he was a brave soldier of the
American revolution. The mother and grandmother were women of
intelligence and great worth, who left their impress upon their
posterity.
Sidney took his turn on the farm, and proved himself competent
even in his boyhood. His father and mother set a high value upon
the education which even the poor schools of that day afforded, and
provided him with every opportunity possible. But out of school he
was expected to work ; nor was he at all disinclined to labor on the
426 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
farm; for he had ''a heart for any work." His ambition, however,
looked beyond the farm. His enterprising spirit soared higher; and
when he was not more than fifteen or sixteen years of age he became
an errand boy on the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad. This was the
first railroad constructed in the State of New York. It run from
Albany to Schenectady. Sidney was greatly pleased with his new
business, and the business was pleased with him. His pay was
small ; but it was a good school for him ; and he so regarded it. His
sharp observation enabled him to learn many things outside of his
daily routine of duties. This quality developed him rapidly, so that
he was fitted for a higher position while he served as errand boy.
Hence we find him within two or three years in a more responsible
position on the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad. Here the same
attention to business, and the same efficiency in doing it, character-
ized him. In consequence, the attention of a railroad contractor was
directed to him, and he hired him to oversee a section of the Boston
and Providence Railroad, which he was to build. He proved himself
to bfc so efficient here that he was subsequently employed to oversee
the execution of contracts upon other railroads.
In 1838 he himself became a contractor, undertaking a job which
lasted nearly two years. He did well for himself in this, and well
for the company. From that time he was not under the necessity of
seeking contracts, for contracts sought him. He built two miles of
the Troy and Schenectady Railroad, twenty-six miles of the Hartford
and Springfield, six miles of the Cheshire, and ten miles of the
Vermont and Massachusetts. And here is only a part of his railroad
work; for he assisted the construction of the Rutland and Burlington;
Central of New Jersey; the Morris Canal ; the Boston and New York
Central ; the Philadelphia and F2rie ; the Erie and Cleveland ; the
Morris and Essex ; the Boston, Hartford, and Erie ; the Iowa ; the
New Orleans, Mobile, and Chattanooga ; the Canada Southern ; the
Union Pacific ; and how many more he only knows. What he had
accomplished only sharpened his appetite for greater achievements ;
for then he contracted for the ** Fourth Avenue Improvement,"
New York, which involved $7,000,000. This was a work of such
magnitude that few contractors could undertake it. But it was
easier for him than a game of chess. It was a great job ; but he was
greater than the job. The work was done, and well done, under his
faithful administration. The foregoing experience had just fitted
him to be president of the Union Pacific Railroad, which office he
filled as well as he had all inferior ones. It is claimed that he has
MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 427
been engaged in over forty of the great public works of our country,
and that his contracts have amounted to one hundred million dol-
lars.
DAVID H. MOFFAT.
David H. Moffat, of Denver, Colorado, was born at Washington-
ville, Orange County, N.Y., in the year 1839. When fifteen years
old, he went to New York, and commenced his business career as a
messenger boy in the New York Exchange Bank. After working
in that capacity for one year, he went West, and took a position as
clerk in the banking house of A. J. Stevens & Co., of Des Moines,
Iowa. Remaining with them a short time, he was offered a better
place with the Bank of Nebraska, at Omaha, which he accepted, and
was finally appointed cashier. After filling that ofiice for four years,
with credit to himself and profit to the bank, he wound up the busi-
ness, paying all indebtedness in full and a handsome dividend to the
stockholders. At that time (i860) the Pike's Peak fever was raging,
and Mr. Moffat bought some mules and a wagon, joined a company
organized in Omaha, and went with them across the plains to seek
his fortune in the new El Dorado. This was before the days of rail-
roads, and he experienced all the hardships and suffering attending
a journey, where the road was infested with hostile Indians, and
lined with the graves of their victims and men who had succumbed
to exposure and starvation.
Arriving in Denver, when it consisted solely of a camp of gold
prospectors located on the banks of the Platte, in company with
C. C. Woolworth, of New York, he started a book and stationery
store, which he ran for six years, and established a large and profit-
able business. He retired from this in 1866, to take the position of
cashier of the First National Bank of Denver. In 1881 he was
elected president, and has been closely identified with that institu-
tion up to the present time, and his administrative ability has made
it the strongest and most conservative national bank between
Chicago and San Francisco. It has a capital and surplus of five
hundred thousand dollars, and three million dollars of deposits.
He became largely interested in mining in Leadville, in 1878, by
purchasing an interest in the famous " Little Pittsburg," with the
late Hon. J. B. Chaffee. The next year they bought H. A. W.
Tabor's interest in said mine, — an enterprise that proved financially
a great success.
428 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
But Mr. Moffat's forte lies in another direction — railroading. At
the present time he holds the presidency of the Denver and Rio
Grande Railroad, to which office he was elected in 1884. He has
been prominently connected with all the leading railroad enterprises
of Colorado. In 1869, together with Governor Evans, he built the
Denver Pacific from Cheyenne to Denver, without which Denver
would have lost its supremacy, and its business would have centred
at Cheyenne. He, with others, organized the syndicate of Denver cap-
italists, who built the Denver and South Park Railroad to Leadville,
which at one time was the best paying railroad in the world. He
also furnished a large amount of capital to build the Denver and New
Orleans Railroad, which will ultimately give Denver a through line
to New Orleans. While Mr. Moffat has amassed a large fortune en-
tirely through his own efforts, having started in life a poor boy
without a dollar, he has always extended a helping hand to others.
The present unexampled growth and prosperity of Denver and Colo-
rado is largely owing to his public spirit and enterprise.
In spite of his wonderful business career, which would have worn
out many men, he is comparatively a young man, being but forty-
eight years of age, — an early age for the many prominent positions
he has held in the leading railroad and financial institutions of the
West. Should he live twenty years longer, and retain the same
business capacity and energy of his past life, his fortune and influ-
ence will not be excelled by any of the railroad magnates of the
country.
IV. MARVELS OF MINING.
y^^c
THE discovery of gold in the New West, in 1848, came about in
this way. John A. Sutter, a Swede, drifted to this country, and
settled in California in 1839. He was a very enterprising, industri-
ous, and successful pioneer ; and, in 1848, he was the owner of a flour
mill, saw-mill, tannery, and a large tract of land on which his many
thousand cattle, horses, and sheep grazed.
In his employ was one James W. Marshall, in whose imagination
floated visions of gold. He believed that there was a plenty of it in
that country waiting to be discovered. He was a mechanic, and built
Sutter s saw-mill, which commenced punning in January, 1848. On
the second day of February Marshall shut the water off, when he dis-
covered particles of shining dust in the race-way. " Gold ! gold ! "
he said within himself under great excitement, and at once instituted
an examination, the result of which was an ounce of gold picked up
in the race-way and dug from the crevices of rocks. He was almost
beside himself with excitement. Mounting a horse, he dashed away
to report to Captain Sutter, who was at his home-fort, forty miles
distant. It was late in the evening when he reached the fort, and
rain was descending in torrents.
Leaping from his horse, he said to Captain Sutter, hurriedly and
excitedly, —
''Captain, I want to see you alone."
Sutter conducted him into a vacant apartment, and closed the
door.
''Are you sure no one will intrude .!* Lock the door," continued
Marshall, so excited as to awaken Sutter's suspicion that he was
crazy.
Sutter locked the door, and assured his friend that no one could
hear or see them.
Stepping up to the table, Marshall poured from a pouch his ounce
of gold.
" G(5ld ! gold ! That is gold ! " he exclaimed, scarcely realizing
whether he was in the flesh or out.
430 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
" Where did you get that ? " inquired Sutter.
Marshall rehearsed the events of the day, and his discovery of
gold in the race-way, enjoining profound secrecy upon the captain.
"■ But you do not know that it is gold," suggested Sutter. " I have
my doubts about it."
After some discussion, however. Captain Sutter settled the matter
by the application of aqua fortis. The test showed it to be gold.
Now Marshall's excitement reached its climax, and in vain did
Captain Sutter entreat him to stop over night. He must return
immediately, and insisted that Sutter should accompany him. The
latter peremptorily declined to go with him in the driving rain, but
promised to go in the morning. Marshall started back, and Sutter
went to bed, though not to sleep.
Early in the morning, the storm having passed away. Captain
Sutter hurried away to the mill-race. When within ten miles of it,
he met Marshall on foot.
''That you, Marshall.?" exclaimed Sutter. "What are you here
for.?"
'' I was so impatient to see you that I walked this distance to meet
you," — a reply which showed how great was the excitement under
which he was laboring.
On arriving at the mill-race, they found all the men engaged in
gathering gold. Realizing that the gold-find might create so much
excitement as to compel the stoppage of his flour and saw mills and
tannery, as well as all labor upon his immense ranch, he called the
men together, and exacted a promise of secrecy for six weeks, during
which time they should faithfully attend to their labors in the mills,
tannery, and on the farm. But such a secret could not be kept. In
a few days the news was on the wings of the wind, and the rush to
this Eldorado was without a parallel. Sutter's men forsook his mills
and ranch to search for gold ; and all his interests were left to
neglect and ruin. Gold-seekers struck anywhere upon his ranch
they pleased, and it was almost literally dug up. Without leave or
license, they appropriated any part of his wide domain to their own
use. They even stole, killed, and ate his flocks and herds, helped
themselves to his large crops of wheat, corn, and potatoes, spoiled his
fur trade with the Indians, and his hide and leather traffic with the
East, and left everything a wreck. Sutter was forced to resort to
the law to re-establish his claims, in which litigation he spent his
last dollar, and finally, after some years of hard struggle with
poverty, he died.
MARVELS OF MINING. 43 I
Marshall was no more fortunate. He gathered some gold, but it
slipped out of his hands, so that, in the end, he derived no pecuniary
profit from his valuable discovery. Hence it has been said, that the
discovery of gold on the Pacific Slope ruined both the discoverer
and the owner of the land on which it was found.
General Sutter, whose name the mill bears, settled here over fifty
years ago, under a grant from the Russian government. That grant
conveyed to him large tracts of land, including the site of Sacramento,
of which Sutter's Mill, or Hoch Farm, as it was called, was a part.
Of course, he was really a rich man ; but swindlers made him a poor
one, and he died a pauper. Mr. Charles Nordhoff visited the place
in 1873, and speaks thus of it : *' You may still see his grove of fig-
trees, under whose shade the country people now hold their picnics ;
his orchards, which still bear fruit ; and his house, which is now a
country tavern. Of all his many leagues of land, the old man has
but a few acres left ; and of the thousands who now own and inhabit
what once was his, not a dozen would recognize him, and many scarce-
ly know his name. His riches melted away as did those of the great
Spanish proprietors ; and he who only a quarter of a century ago
owned a territory larger than some of the States, and counted his
cattle by the thousands, — if, indeed, he ever counted them, — who
lived in a fort, like a European noble of the feudal times, had an
army of Indians at his command,, and occasionally made war upon
the predatory tribes who were his neighbors, now lives upon a small
annuity granted by the State of California."
Five thousand men were at work in the mines before the close of
the year 1848, and the product of their labor was five million dollars,
an average of 07ie tkousa?td dollars to a man. There were about two
thousand men living in San Francisco in January, 1848, all but five
of whom left for the gold-field.
No doubt there was much exaggeration in regard to the richness
of the mines ; at any rate, many adventurers risked life itself to
reach the land of gold, expecting to fill their pockets daily with the
precious metal. And yet, the real facts in the case were marvellous.
Gold was found in so large quantities, that the five thousand seekers
in '48 believed there was enough for every man who might come.
Two ounces per day was but an ordinary yield for each man, and
many did much better than that. As the value of gold was twelve
dollars per ounce in cash and sixteen dollars in trade, their hard
labor was very remunerative. Colonel Mason, who made an exami-
nation of the mines for the government, confirmed, in his official
432
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
SUTTER'S MILL.
MARVELS OF MINI JVC.
433
report, their reputation for richness and magnitude. He said that
the leading store at Sutter's Fort in nine weeks received thirty-six
thousand dollars in gold-dust, in exchange for goods ; and that two
men took out of a small ravine seventeen thousand dollars in seven
days. He relates that seven miners hired fifty Indians to work for
them seven weeks. At the end of that time, they had two hundred
and seventy-three pounds of pure gold, the cash value of which was
nearly forty thousand dollars. Some men, on some days, made a
hundred dollars each, and even more. A miner pulled up a bush one
day, and shook the earth from
its roots into his pan, as a
farmer pulls and shakes a hill
of potatoes, and the yield of
gold from that bush was near-
ly fifty dollars. In 1850, a
nugget of gold was found in
Nevada County, valued at
three hundred and twelve
dollars. In Columbia Dis-
trict, the same year, several
nuggets of even greater value
were picked up, one of them
weighing twenty-three
pounds. It was not unusual
for a piece of ground ten feet
square to yield ten thousand
dollars from the surface-dirt.
Many facts of this kind prove that
gold was plentiful, however much
exaggeration there was connected
with its discovery. The subsequent
history of mining on the Pacific Coast proves, also, that the facts are
marvellous. Since the discovery of gold there in 1848 the product
of the mines of California to the present time exceeds ^1,200,000,000 !
Marshall's ounce of gold-dust assured the speedy settlement and
growth of the New West. ** Money makes the mare go," is an old
maxim that has been wonderfully illustrated in the progress of
Christian civilization in the Rocky Mountain region.
There were scarcely two thousand Americans in California in Feb-
ruary, 1848; in December there were six thousand ; in July, 1849,
fifteen thousand ; and in December of that year, fifty-three tJiousand.
It was claimed that the rush of men to California, in five years after
OFF FOR THE MINES.
434 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
the discovery of gold, was so immense as to remove the centre of
our country's population eighty-one miles west. Then the inhabi-
tants of California numbered three hundred thousand, and nearly two
hundred and seventy millio7t dollars had been extracted from the
mines. The author of that valuable work, "Mining Camps," says:
"The summer of 1849 ^"^^ "^ ^^^^ ^^^^i five hundred and forty-nine
sea-going vessels in the port of San Francisco. In the month of
August, four hundred large ships were idly swinging at anchor, desti-
tute of crews ; for their sailors had deserted, swam ashore, escaped
to the gold-fields. Thirty-five thousand men came by sea, and forty-
two thousand by land, during the year. Australia, the Asian coasts,
Africa, and South America contributed to the motley host that
thronged the roads to the placers." Prices were fabulous : a shirt,
^25; a comb, $6; barrel of mess pork, $220; dozen sardines, $35 ; a
hundred pounds of flour, $75 ; a candle, $3 ; tin pan, $9 ; shovel, ^10;
pick, $15.
Ten years later, the discovery of gold in what is now Colorado
created another "unparalleled excitement," as we have already seen.
As Colorado was more accessible than California, the rush of pro-
spectors was much larger. They poured into the gold-fields by tens
of thousands. Many even left the mines of California for richer
ones, as they supposed, in Colorado. No amount of hardship and
suffering could deter the tide of immigration. Many of the gold
seekers were the most intelligent and substantial men of the Anglo-
Saxon race from the East, West, and South. Unwittingly they came
to lay the foundation of an empire. They were the modern Argo-
nauts, who sought only "the golden fleece," but developed the rich-
est, fairest, grandest country on earth.
Beginning at Cherry Creek, near the site of Denver, this army
of prospectors scoured the " Plains " and penetrated the Rocky
Mountains, searching for gold. Clear Creek Canon, Boulder, Cali-
fornia Gulch, and a large number of other localities "opened rich,"
augmenting the excitement with the increase of the gold-product.
Then followed the discovery of silver, which was as unexpected as it
was fortunate, opening new fields of research, and bringing other
thousands of enthusiastic toilers into the Territory.
At the same time, the prospector was abroad in Arizona, Nevada,
Utah, New Mexico, Montana, Idaho, and, indeed, throughout the
whole country between the Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean;
and the news of rich mines in all these localities spread wildly over
the land. Untold millions of precious stones and metals were treas-
MARVELS OF M/N/ATG. 435
ured in the Rocky Mountain region, and the 'key was found with
which to open the vaults. Throughout the vast territory which the
United States government purchased of France and Mexico for
about thirty million dollars (two cents per acre) was made the disclo-
sure of unparalleled resources in gold and silver. This was especially
true of Colorado, from whose mines alone have been taken seven
times as many dollars as the government paid to France and Mexico
for their mammoth claims in what we now call the New West.
Since that day of small beginnings in the gold harvest on Cherry
Creek, the mines of the Centennial State have yielded over two htm-
drcd million dollars. Colorado has mines which have yielded fabu-
lous amounts in a short time. In eighteen months, prior to 1880, the
Little Pittsburg yielded ($3,800,000) tJiree millioji eight hundred
thousand dollars ; the Little Chief, in the same period ($2,056,292)
two million fifty -six tJiousand tivo hundred ninety-tivo dollars ; the
Chrysolite, in fifteen months ($2,100,000) two million one hundred
thousand dollars ; the Gregory, seven millions in sixteen years; and
the Bobtail, five millions in fifteen years.
In, 1883 the bullion pr Juct of Colorado was ($26,376,562) twenty-
six million three Jmnd d seveftty-six thousand five hundred and
sixty-two dollars, nearly the amount which our government paid to
France and Mexico for the immense territory spoken of. In 1884,
the amount was somewhat diminished, but amounted to ($20,233,749)
tzventy million two Jnindred thirty-three tJiousand seven hundred
forty-nijie dollars. In 1885, its bullion product was ($22,500,000)
twenty-two million five Jiundred thousand dollars. Colorado took the
lead of all the States and Territories in bullion product in 1880, Cali-
fornia taking the second place, and Nevada the third place. Colorado
has stood at the head of the column ever since.
In eight years (from 1859 to 1867) the Comstock lode in Nevada
yielded the enormous sum of ($66,000,000) sixty-six million dollars.
It was thought in 1867 that this could not be beat ; and yet this lode
largely advanced its production in the next twelve years. For in
twenty years from 1859, its production reached the startling figures
($385,000,000) three Jiundred eighty-five million dollars, — an annual
average product of over ($19,000,000) nineteen million dollars.
With this production of vast wealth, it is not strange that the first
*' Industrial and Mining Exposition" ever known in the world should
be opened in the New West, where twenty-five years before there
spread out the most barren waste of the whole region. Had a prophet
of a generation ago foretold that the first great mining exposition in
43^ MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
the history of nations would be opened on the desert lying between
the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains, his prophecy would
have been regarded too ludicrous to provoke even a smile. And yet
we are able to furnish an account of just that occurrence, accom-
panied with a good illustration of the costly and beautiful Exposition
Building, which rose like magic, in 1882, upon a location so recently
abandoned to the support of the buffalo and savage, and which stands
to-day a monument of the industry and wealth of the Anglo-Saxon
race under the shadow of the Rocky Mountains.
The Industrial Exposition Building, a view of which is shown on the
following page, is 500 feet in length by 310 in extreme width. The
amount of space available for exhibition purposes is 82,230 square
feet on the ground floor, and 33,850 in the gallery, amounting in all
to about three acres. The construction of the building required
3,250,000 bricks, 1,250,000 feet of lumber, 700 boxes of window glass,
50,000 pounds of nails, and over three acres of tin roofing. Power
is furnished for machinery by a 250-horse-power Corliss engine, the
boilers of which are located in a separate building, 50 x 50 feet in
size. Besides the engine-house, there are several large annexes for
agricultural implements, machinery, etc. Steam and water are
carried to all parts of the building, and it is lighted at night by the
Weston electric light. It is truly an artistic structure, and is located
on six acres of ground, two miles or more from City Hall, which the
Association purchased of the commissioners of Arapahoe County for
$25,000. The cost of the building was (;^ 150,000) one hundred fifty
thousand dollars.
The first exposition was opened Aug. i, and closed Oct. i, 1882.
Each year since an exposition has been opened at the same season
of the year, and continued about the same length of time, each
one eclipsing its predecessor in the magnitude of its exhibit. While
mining products were made a specialty, all the industries of Colo-
rado and the New West were largely represented. At the first
exposition, 4,551 mines were represented, from which 6'j^ tons of ore
were shown, the estimated value of which was $718,850. The exhi-
bition was a surprise even to those well acquainted with mining.
Hon. W. D. Kelley delivered the address at the opening of the first
exposition, and he began by saying : —
*' The splendors of Palmyra and the desert pale before a recital
of the brief history of Colorado. Ten years ago, I spent some weeks
in traversing your beautiful State, and became familiar with every-
thing of note in Denver, its metropolis ; and, as yesterday morning I
MARVELS OF MINING.
437
looked upon
the city again,
I felt that I
could not safe-
ly trust my
own senses.
I wondered
whether I was
not under the
dominion of
magi, and that
fairies and
genii were
playing tricks
with my vision.
History m ay
be challenged,
and challenged
in vain, for a
parallel to the
progress made
by this city in
its brief period,
in wealth, in
arts, in all the
elements of
modern and
advancing civ-
ilization.
"Standing
here on the
western bor-
ders of what
was called but
a few years
ago the desert
plain, and in
the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, with an elevation of more
than five thousand feet above the level of the sea, we mark in the
opening of this exhibition the entrance of a new era in history, more
brilliant than any of its predecessors, and more beneficent, inas-
438
MARVELS OF THE AEW WEST.
much as it will open the blessings of civilization to portions of the
people who have hitherto failed to receive them."
First of all, in the mining business, appears the' "prospector."
He is one who searches for mines. Although the discovery of gold
in California, in 1848, and in Colorado, ten years later, was acci-
dental, as miners say, yet these discoveries created a new class of
workers; viz., prospectors. Mines do not "lie around loose," to
be stumbled upon by ignorant and unenterprising men ; they are
PROSPECTORS.
found generally by the most painstaking and wearisome labors.
To-day some mines are found where they were searched for in vain
twenty years ago. Investigation, experience, and science have con-
tributed a fund of knowledge to make the researches of the pros-
pector easier and surer.
The prospector may be a native or foreigner ; an ignorant ad-
venturer or a graduate of Harvard or Yale ; a man who expects to
make a " lucky strike," or one who knows that industry and perse-
verance alone will hew his way to success. The great majority of
MARVELS OF MINING. 439
the former class have found their level in poverty or the grave, leav-
ing the field of exploration open for the more intelligent and enter-
prising to- occupy.
In the autumn of 1883, we met a very interesting young man of
thirty years in Chalk Creek, Colorado. He had been a successful
schoolmaster and prospector, but for several months had been work-
ing his ''claim." The following was the story of his success : —
He was a teacher for several years in a large city east of the
Mississippi. There were two other schoolmasters in the same city,
about his age, both of them very efficient in their profession. Each
of them had laid by three or four thousand dollars, when one of the
number, who had read and studied much about mining, proposed a
prospecting tour in Colorado during the approaching summer vaca-
tion. The result was a decision- to abandon school-keeping for
mining at the expiration of that school-year.
Having decided to follow mining as their life-business, they
started out with their "gripsacks," prepared to walk any distance
that was necessary, or to ride in car or stage, or on mule or buck-
board, as the case might be. They must find a mine. They ex-
pected to find one. They did find one.
After prospecting for several months in the Rocky Mountains,
without meeting with the success which their ambition coveted, they
heard of a mine up in Chalk Creek that had been abandoned by the
owners for want of money to work it. Thither they repaired, insti-
tuted a thorough examination, and became satisfied that the parties
abandoned the enterprise when they were on the eve of success.
They bought the mine for a song, and within a few weeks were
extracting gold in sufficient quantities to assure their fortunes.
They proved themselves as efficient in the mining industry as they
did in school-keeping. Their intelligence, tact, and persistent efforts
run the mine as easily as they did the school.
In a town on the Pacific slope, a minister rehearsed the following
incident to the writer. A few Sabbaths before, a stranger came into
his congregation, wearing long unkempt hair and a miner's suit of
canvas. His external appearance was that of a miner, but his bearing
was that of a literary gentleman. He paid the closest attention to
the sermon from beginning to end, thereby adding to the preacher's
interest and curiosity. The latter became intensely interested in
his new hearer ; and, at the close of the preaching service, he was
delighted to find that the stranger remained to join the Sabbath
school. **Now," said the minister to himself, "I will find out who
440 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
he is and where he came from." He thought he must be a Hterary
gentleman.
The school was all embraced in one class, taught by the pastor ;
and, in the lesson of that day, there arose a discussion upon the
change of the Jewish to the Christian Sabbath. Several different
opinions were expressed, when the pastor, thinking that his favorable
moment had arrived, addressed the stranger : —
" Friend, we are glad to see you, and would be most happy
to hear from you. Have you any thoughts to express upon this
subject } "
The pastor had given his interpretation of a certain passage of
Scripture, and he was somewhat taken aback by the response of his
new pupil.
*' I do not think that your interpretation of the passage is sup-
ported by the original Greek."
" Do you understand the Greek language } " inquired the pastor.
The stranger thrust his hand down into the big pocket of his
miner's suit, pulled out a Greek Testament, and proceeded to read
the passage in Greek, and then translated it, with such comments as
appeared to him pertinent.
After the school was dismissed, the pastor had an interview with
the stranger, and found that he was a graduate of Yale College, but
was then a prospector in the mountains six miles distant.
At the present time, it is not necessary for ignorance and inexpe-
rience to try their 'Muck" in hunting mines; for a quarter of a
century has produced a supply of men who understand the business,
— geologists, mineralogists, learned professors, practical explorers,
who repudiate "luck and chance" in this business, as really as the
stock-raiser or manufacturer do in theirs. A '* School of Mines" at
Golden, Col., educates young men, or older men, for every part
of this important service. A prospector must know how to pro-
spect, as the chemist must know how to analyze, or the mechanic
how to turn out his handiwork.
There is but one sentiment among the initiated respecting the
value and necessity of knowledge, observation, experience, and tact,
to the prospector. Alexander Del Mar, M.E., of San Francisco,
wrote, a few years since, as follows : —
" Mining does not consist of a knowledge of geology, nor fossilism,
nor petrology, nor chemistry, nor metallurgy, nor microscopy, nor
geodesy, nor surveying, nor mechanics, nor hydraulics, nor of how
best to handle a rocker, a tom, a pick, a sledge, or a drill. It con-
MARVELS OF MINING, 44 1
sists of all these things and many more combined. As such, it is
not fully taught in the mining schools, whether of Frieberg, Paris,
Madrid, or any other. The graduation certificate of these mining
schools are, therefore, of little value in determining the ability of a
mining engineer. Accuracy of observation and truthfulness of re-
port are among the most important characteristics of an engineer,
because many mining operations are impossible without co-operation
and capital, and these cannot be secured by men who are not accu-
rate and reliable. Yet it is evident that these qualities cannot be
acquired in school.
** Second : Mining is a secret art. This arises from the tremen-
dous rewards of successful mining. There are men in this city who,
but a few years ago, were poor and hard-working, yet who are now
reputed to be worth from fifteen to forty million dollars each. Min-
ing is not an unknown art ; it is merely a secret one. There are
plenty of men who can correctly answer most of the questions sug-
gested in the above extracts, but who will not answer them, because
it pays much better to keep them secret. Hence the answers do not
find their way into books, and consequently are not easily accessible
to the editors of newspapers. There are men so familiar with the
mineralogical 'indications' in their particular district of country that
a 'twist' in the 'grain ' of the 'country rock,' or the peculiar color of
a spar seam will cause them to go on or stop mining, or to change the
direction of their explorations. Each country has its own peculiar
geology, and this is so vast, so complex, and the knowledge of it so
imperfect, that it is difficult to learn and useless to transplant. The
mine capitalists of 1824-25 learned to their cost, that British steam-
mechanics and Mexican horse-mechanics were two different arts, and
American mine capitalists may learn a similar lesson at the present
time."
Prof. J. Alden Smith, late State geologist of Colorado, said : —
" The business of mining should be conducted on the same gen-
eral basis as ordinary mercantile and manufacturing pursuits ; men of
experience only should be allowed to manage mining properties, and
not schoolmasters. It requires three times the experience, and four
times the preparatory study, to successfully manage a mine, that it
does to run a wholesale grocery or a woollen factory. There are
dozens of mines in Colorado which have paid dividends ranging all
the way from thirty to sixty per cent annually, for from five to twelve
years consecutively, of which the general public has heard absolutely
nothing. An instance came under my notice not long ago, where
442
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
seven thousand seven hundred dollars (^7,700) was invested in a
property by a man of practical education, and the investment was
returned inside of eighty-five days. Another practical manager re-
turned to the owners of a certain mine, of whose existence the public
is ignorant, a net profit of twenty-two thousand five hundred dollars
(^22,500) out of a gross product of twenty-five thousand dollars
($25,000)."
We would not convey the idea that there is never anything like
GOLD-DIGGER AND DEER
what men call " stumbling upon a mine." We have already said that
gold was first discovered in California and Colorado by men who
were not searching for it. This, however, is not the rule, but the
exception. We might fill a long chapter with these exceptions; but
the narrative would be brief in comparison with the volumes in
which are recorded the achievements of patient research and scien-
tific mining.
It is related of an early adventurer, who drifted with the crowd to
Leadville in 1878, that, after a vain endeavor to discover gold by his
wits, poverty and despair got the better of him. He awoke one
MARVELS OF MINING.
443
morning without food or money, and canvassing his situation, he
resolved to go out and shoot some sort of game to supply present
and pressing necessities. He shot a deer ; and the animal, in his
dying agonies, kicked up a parcel of dirt that disclosed the presence
of gold. The poverty-stricken prospector opened his eyes when this
proof of a mine was kicked into his face, made sure of his ''claim,"
and opened one of the most profitable mines ever worked in that
locality. He was more indebted for his good fortune to the heels of
the deer than he was to the '' School of Mines."
In the days of gold-excitement in California, three prospectors
jointly engaged in mine-hunting with scarcely any success for months.
Good news coming from another locality, they packed up their tools
MINE LOCOMOTIVE.
and started. On the way, they found the dead body of a man whose
errand to that part of the country was like theirs, without doubt.
'' Poor fellow ! " said one of the men, " he has passed in his
checks ! "
" Let us give him a decent burial," proposed another of the men ;
** some wife or mother will be glad, if she ever knows it."
*' All right," responded the third prospector ; ''it will be a humane
deed, to say the least."
So the three set to work with a will to dig the dead stranger's
grave. Three feet from the surface they found evidence of gold ;
and the result was that they opened a gold mine there instead of a
grave, and buried the stranger in another place. To that date their
wits and industry did less for them than their humanity.
There was a claim in Leadville called the " Dead Man Claim."
The mine and the name came about in this way. A miner died when
444
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
there were several feet of snow lying on the ground. His comrades
wished to give him a respectable burial, so they hired another to dig
his grave for twenty dollars. In the meantime, they laid the dead
man away in a snowbank for safe keeping. When the grave-digger
had been absent three days and no report from him had been
received, a search was instituted, and he was found digging a mine
instead of a grave. In excavating the grave, he struck a rich mine,
and in his great ex-
citement forgot the
corpse and his bar-
gain, intent only
upon making his
fortune. He had
been an unsuccess-
ful prospector,
growing poorer
and poorer from
month to month,
but now he " struck
it rich " when he
was thinking only
of getting twenty
dollars to keep up
the connection be-
tween his soul and
body.
Into the little
town of Rosita,
Col., there came an
old miner, in 1877
or 1878, who had
been an unsuccess-
ful prospector in
Australia. He re-
turned from that far-off country without a dollar to his name, and
hied away to the gold-fields of Colorado. For some months he ap-
plied himself industriously to prospecting, but without success. He
was so poor and " unlucky " that he became depressed and melan-
choly. But one day he seated himself upon a stone, and proceeded
aimlessly to strike another stone at his feet with his pick. He was
altogether forlorn and hopeless ; and he was revolving his bitter
FINDING GOLD BY ACCIDENT.
MARVELS OF MINING. 445
experience in his thoughts. Unexpectedly he chipped off a piece of
the rock he was so thoughtlessly pounding. The chip startled him ;
for his eye caught the evidence of a rich deposit of gold. He caught
up the broken piece with delight, examined it closely to be sure of
the truth, and sprang to his feet. It was gold ! gold ! a rich find,
too ! — the first m all his prospecting and wanderings to gladden his
heart.
PLACER MINING.
He hurried into the town, and went directly to an acquaintance,
to whom he showed his specimen, and offered to take him in as
partner for twenty-five dollars. His friend declined, whereupon he
hastened to the assay office, where a load of wood had just been
dropped. He agreed to saw the wood to pay for assaying his sam-
ples. The result more than satisfied his wildest expectation. He
took out of that mine ($450,000) four Jinjtdrcd and fifty thonsaiid
dollars, and then sold it for ($300,000) three hundred thousand, and
($1,000,000) one million in stocks, — the best return an aimless blow
44^ MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
ever received. Doubtless the fortunate man called his experience
^'luck."
'' Honest John," as he was called, a noted Idaho character, was
out hunting, when he wounded a deer. He gave chase after the
wounded creature through wood and glen, and finally stumbled over
what proved to be a rich lode. The appearance of the earth attracted
his attention, whereupon he instituted a careful examination, which
resulted in the discovery of a rich mine. He named it Elkhorn ; and
within six weeks he was taking fifteen hundred dollars a day out of
it. The mine yielded one Jumdred and fifty thousand dollai^s in 1882,
three hn7idred tJioiisand in 1883, and has continued to enrich its
owners to this day.
Placer mining first enlists the attention of gold-seekers, because
it is easiest, most accessible, and makes prompt returns. It consists
in washing the surface dirt. We saw that the thousands who
invaded California in 1848-49 engaged at once in this sort of mining.
The cut on p. 445 represents them at work with pan and shovel,
the former about the form and size of an ordinary tin pan. When
the process of washing the gold from the dirt is remunerative, the
miner says ''\\. pans out well." His pan furnishes the figure.
As compared with lode mining, there is no outlay to be made in
the outset, and no risk to run. At the close of each day the miner
knows just the amount he has earned. He may be entirely ignorant
of practical and scientific mining, but he knows enough to separate
gold from the surface dirt. He may be as poor as Job's long-eared
companion, but his muscle and perseverance give him as good a
chance as his more well-to-do co-worker enjoys. Poverty stands
abreast with competency in this kind of work ; or poverty may
sift dirt as fast, and perhaps faster, than competency.
We have seen, also, that gold-seekers in Colorado, in 1858-59,
devoted themselves to placer mining in Boulder, Gilpin, Park, Sum-
mit, Lake, and other counties. Here they could work but five or
six months of the year on account of the severity of the weather ;
but one million a season was the average amount of gold secured for
several years. Indeed, California Gulch alone, where three or four
months of labor covered the working season, turned out one million
each season for a series of years.
The gold gathered by placer mining has been washed down from
the mountains, through past ages, into the creeks, rivers, and gulches.
Much of it works through the loose gravel down to the bed of rivers,
where miners find the richest deposits.
MARVELS OF MINING.
447
The rocker, sometimes called ''cradle," is about as primitive as the
pan in placer mining. A good illustration of it is found below,
showing also the method of working it. It is simply a box about
four feet long, mounted on rockers and furnished with graded sieves.
The gold dirt is placed in the hopper, where the water is also poured,
and, by the use of amalgamated plates and blankets, the gold is sepa-
rated from the dirt as it is washed down from the hopper into the
box. It is still in use in certain localities, as on river-bars, where
other methods are not practicable.
THE ROCKER.
Of course there is a limit to placer mining. The gold is exhausted
in time ; and miners who are not prepared to engage in lode mining
pack their traps and start for other placers. This includes the class
who have not the enterprise or capital to engage in lode mining ; and
it is a very large class, too. When the crowd of placer miners left
Boulder, Gilpin, and other counties of Colorado just named, in 1863,
for other placers in the Rocky Mountains, even as far away as Mon-
tana and Idaho, some of the richest lodes were being worked in the
counties which they forsook. The Bobtail, Gregory, Winnebago,
Burroughs, Kansas, and a score of others, were yielding their thou-
448
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
GULCH MINING.
sands of dollars every month ; but the mass of stampeders had no
love for this more difficult method of acquiring fortunes. Perhaps
many of them really thought that the shortest cut to great wealth
was through placer mining ; and so placers they must have. The
word " placer " is from the Spanish, and means '' content," " satisfac-
tion " ; and this class appeared to be " content " with placers only.
MARVELS OF MINING.
449
In 1862 placer mining began in Montana, and in 1867 Alder Gulch
alone, thirteen miles long, had yielded sixty millions. From 1862 to
the present time the placers of Montana have turned out one hundred
and fifty mil lions.
We have said that gold is washed down from the mountains into
gulches and ravines, where the hydraulic method of securing it is
brought into requisition. By this method water is carried long dis-
tances, often by ditches and flumes, to wash gold from the dirt on a
much larger scale. The cut (p. 448) shows the flume and sluices, the
latter being nothing more than boxes into which the gold dirt is
carried by the
swift-running
water, where the
presence of mer-
cury in the bot-
tom of the boxes
attracts and sep-
arates the gold
from the dirt.
Once or twice a
day, as the cir-
cumstances may
be, the water is
shut off, the boj
es opened, arti
the gold securec
Sometimes a pov
erful stream a
water is poured
into the sides of
the gulch, to wash out the earth into the flume in a large way.
Hydraulic mining caused such immense damage in California by
filling up rivers and covering farming lands with debris, that it has
been suppressed by legislation, thereby largely diminishing the gold-
product, and causing depression in business. It is claimed that the
suppression of this mode of mining threw twenty thousand men out
of employment. Many persons believe that the damage by leg-
islation will be greater than the damage by the accumulation of
debris.
Above is an illustration of hydraulic mining in Idaho, where a
mammoth nugget was discovered a few years ago, four inches long,
GULCH MINING, IDAHO.
450 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
two and a half wide, and one inch thick, weighing nineteen ounces,
twelve pennyweights, and eighteen grains.
In hydraulic mining, flumes are often carried across deep valleys,
after the manner of railroad and highway bridges, as represented
below.
LODE MINING.
Exhaustible placer mining was followed by inexhaustible lode
mining, which embraces silver mining. Here it is necessary to sink
FLUME.
a shaft down into the bowels of the earth by drilling and blasting.
This is accomplished by hard work and great expense.
The next cut represents the perpendicular shaft into the earth, with
two horizontal levels, or drifts. A windlass is erected at the opening
of the shaft for the purpose of lowering and raising the bucket.
Miners descend by the bucket or ladder. When a mine is excavated
beyond seventy-five or a hundred feet, the windlass is no longer
serviceable. Man-power is not equal to the task, and horse-power,
with pulley or drum of timber, is called into requisition. At a greater
depth, say two hundred or two hundred and fifty feet, steam-power is
MARVELS OF MINING.
451
required. When a large quantity of water hinders work in the mine,
powerful pumps become indispensable.
A mine may have several drifts, according to its depth, and the
drifts may be on both sides of the shaft. The cut on the opposite
page shows two drifts on the right. Often the drifts extend a long
distance, and railway tracks are laid, on which the ore is conveyed
LODE MINING.
to the bottom of the shaft, whence it is lifted to the surface of
the earth. The Chrysolite Mine of Colorado has from seven to
eight thousand feet of drift.
The reader will observe that the mine is heavily timbered through-
out. This is necessary in both shaft and drift to prevent caving,
and assure safety to the miner who is obliged to adopt a subterra-
nean life. It is a dark abode, so that the best artificial lighting is
452
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
required. The miner must wear a light on his cap, in addition to
the reflectors which illuminate his underground workshop.
The depth of mines varies from fifty to twenty-five hundred feet.
Many of them are one thousand feet deep. Several in Colorado are
over thirteen hundred feet in depth ; and there is one in Nevada
sunk twenty-five hundred feet into the bowels of the earth. What a
place for a human being to live and labor in !
On the next page, veins of gold or silver are represented, with shaft
sunk so as to cut them, or to reach them bv its drifts. The veins can be
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.
worked above and beneath, as well as at the sides, by the men in the
drifts. A vein may extend to such a length as to make it practicable
to sink several shafts.
When a profitable mine is fairly in operation, a building is erected
over the entrance, provided with all the room and appliances neces-
sary to carry on the work in summer and winter. For the change of
seasons does not trouble the miner at work a thousand feet below
the earth's surface, nor even the change of temperature. Summer
and winter are about the same to him.
MARVELS OF MINING.
453
GOING INTO A MINE.
*
A. A. Hayes, Jr., has an amusing description of his descent into
a Colorado mine, in his instructive book, " New Colorado," and we
extract it for the entertainment of our readers at this point : —
*' Entering a rough wooden building, you see a steam-engine turn-
ing an immense drum, around which is coiled a wire rope. On a
chair sits, with each hand on a lever, the bright, watchful engineer,
his eyes fixed on the drum, now nearly covered with the coil. In
another minute, click ! the machinery has stopped, and out of an
VEINS OF GOLD.
opening in front, like Harlequin in a Christmas pantomime, has come
a grimy figure, who stands there smiling at you, with a lamp fixed on
the front of his cap, and his feet on the rim of a great iron bucket.
He steps off, the bucket is emptied of the load — not of rich ore, but
of very dirty water, which it has brought up — and there is an air of
expectancy among the workmen, and an inquiring smile on the face
of Mr. Thornton, the superintendent. Something is clearly expected of
you, for it is established that you are not what is called by the miners
a * specimen fiend,' or unmitigated sample-collecting nuisance, and it
is assumed that when you came hither to investigate you * meant
business.' You take the hint and follow Mr. Thornton to a room,
where, amidst a good deal of joking, you put on some clothes — and
454
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
such clothes! If you have one spark of personal vanity, 'all hope
abandon, ye who enter here,' for even your^kind guide has to turn
away to hide a smile when he sees you in overalls which will not
meet in front, and are precariously tied with a ragged string ; an
ancient flannel shirt, the sleeves of which hang in tatters around your
wristbands, and a cap which might have come over in the Mayflower^
GOING INTO A MINE.
and has a smoky lamp hooked into its fast-decomposing visor. As
you approach the mouth of the shaft, the engineer genially remarks
that there ' ain't m?ick danger,' and when the bucket has come up and
been partially emptied, the bystanders repeatedly advise you to be
careful about getting in. As you climb perilously over the side, you
think of the Frenchman who, starting in the fox hunt, cried out,
* Take noteece, mes amis, zat I leafe everyzing to my vife ! ' And
MARVELS OF MINING. 455
when you are crouched down so that Mr. Thornton can stand on the
rim above, you do not think at all, but know that you are what M.
Mantalini called 'a dern'd moist, unpleasant body.' Mr. Thornton
makes a grim remark about it being as well to have some matches,
in case the lamps go put, gives the word, and down you go. Under-
stand that there is just about room for the bucket in the shaft, that
the latter is slightly inclined, and that you catch, and jar, and shake
in a nerve-trying way ; and understand further, that a person should
carefully study his temperament and possible disabilities before he
takes a contract to go into a deep shaft.
*' At a certain depth — it may be five hundred or one thousand feet
(in some Nevada mines it is two thousand five hundred) — you stop
at side-drifts or cross-cuttings, in which men are at work ; and here
you see, wafled in by rock, the fissure vein. Some are ' stoping,' or
cutting away pieces with a pick ; others holding the steel wedges ;
and others striking them tremendous blows with sledge hammers.
They are, by the way, in the habit of accompanying these blows
with gutteral sounds, the hearing of which induced a special corre-
spondent of the gentler sex — ignoring the fact that they receive
three dollars per diem^ own chronometer watches, and have fine bank
accounts, and silver-spoons on their tables — to write a soul-moving
description of the poor, down-trodden miner, imprisoned far from the
light of the blessed day, uttering terrible groans as he toiled his life
away for the enrichment of the bloated and pampered capitalist !
Other men, again, are drilling, loading, and tamping for the ' shots '
which are to tear the rock in pieces : and you will probably remem-
ber a pressing engagement to 'meet a man' at some distance from
the mine, and induce Mr. Thornton to ring for that moist car, and
take you up before they light the match. Emerging from the shaft,
clad once more in the garb of civilization, and thinking what a set of
fine fellows you have seen, you will agree with the sagacious soul
who said to the colonel and the commodore, ' Yes, there's a good
many of them big-hearted fellows in this country. You see, them
small-souled cusses takes too much irrigation)- to bring them out.
They've got to git up an' git ! ' "
In addition to the entertainment of the foregoing description, it is
very instructive, and introduces the reader to some of the methods
of mine life.
The next cut illustrates what Mr, Hayes refers to by the word
1 Liquor.
456 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
*'stoping." The glossary of mining terms defines it to be "the act
of breaking down a stope [see definition of stope\ and excavating it
with a pick."
WEIGHTS, VALUES, AND MEASUREMENTS.
In his valuable history of Colorado, Mr. Fossett introduces many
important facts concerning weights, values, and measurements con-
nected with mining, which the reader will find of practical use. We
copy them here, as we feel that it is almost indispensable for the
reader to know them, if he would possess a comprehensive view of
the subject in hand : —
STORING.
"A ton of gold or silver contains 20,166.66 ounces.
"A ton of gold is worth ;^6o2,875.
"A ton of silver, at the standard rate of ;^ 1.29,29, would be worth
$37,709.57; but at the present price of silver, $1.10 per ounce, it
would be worth only $32,083.32.
*' The standard of gold and silver for United States money is 900
parts of pure metal and 100 parts of alloy in 1,000 parts of coin ;
that is, a dollar is nine-tenths pure metal.
*' Standard gold is worth $18.60,465 per ounce United States gold
coin, 2\\ carats fine.
MARVELS OF MINING. 457
"Standard silver, $1.1636+ per ounce. The term 'fineness' ex-
presses the quantity or proportion of pure metal in 1,000 parts.
"The value of an ounce of gold, pure, is $20.67,183, or approxi-
mately $20.67; 23.22 grains of pure gold equals $1. The standard
gold dollar is 25.8 grains troy, and the silver dollar 412.5, and the
trade-dollar 420.9 grains.
"Pure silver has 371.25 grains to the dollar; hence, the value of
one ounce should be $1.29,29+, instead of the varying bullion price
$1.10 or $1.15. Had the former been the ruling price, as in by-gone
years, Colorado's silver product of 1878 would have had a valua-
tion one million greater than it was.
"The British standard of coinage is 11 parts of gold to one of
alloy, and of silver, 37 parts of silver to 30 alloy. Quotations of the
price of silver on the British market is made on that basis, viz. : of
tVtAt fii^G \ while American transactions are made in the pure metal.
This accounts for the lower rates per ounce of the former.
" One pound * troy ' weight equals ||^ of a pound avoirdupois ;
7,000 troy grains equal one pound avoirdupois; 437.5 troy grains
equal an ounce avoirdupois ; 175 troy pounds equal 144 pounds avoir-
dupois; 175 troy ounces equal 192 ounces avoirdupois; one avoir-
dupois pound equals 1.215,278 pounds troy.
" One troy pound equals 22.8156 cubic inches of water.
" One cubic foot equals 7.4805 gallons.
"One metre equals 39.370,797 inches, English measurement.
"One decametre equals 32.80899 feet, English measurement.
"One hectometre equals 328.0899 feet, English measurement.
"One kilometre equals 3,280.899 feet, English measurement.
" It is estimated that the gold coin, bars, and bullion in circula-
tion in the world are worth $3,500,000,000; equal to the debt of
Great Britain. If this was in one mass, it would make a twenty-five
foot cube. One cubic foot of gold weighs 1,200 pounds, and is worth
not far from $300,000. Silver is about one-half as heavy as gold, —
a cubic foot of silver weighing about 600 pounds, worth about
$10,000. There is about the same value of silver in the world as
gold ; viz., $3,500,000,000."
We add, also, that a carat is a weight used by goldsmiths and
jewellers. Originally the Kaura bean was used for this purpose,
from which the name carat was derived. A carat is a weight of four
grains, when used in weighing diamonds ; and when used in refer-
ence to the fineness of gold, pure gold is supposed to weigh twenty-
four carats of twelve grains each, and this pure gold is called fine.
458
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Thus, if gold be said to be twenty-two carats fine, it is meant that
twenty-two twenty-fourths are pure gold, and two twenty-fourths
alloy. Coin is usually twenty carats fine ; while gold used for orna-
ments and jewelry varies from eighteen carats down as low as twelve
and even ten carats. The alloy is usually silver. Gold in its pure
state is too soft for ordinary use.
E. B. Elliott, the government actuary, has computed the weight of
;^ 1,000,000 in gold and silver coin, as follows : —
ROCK-BORING WINCH.
The standard gold dollar of the United States contains of gold of
nine-tenths fineness, 25.8 grains; and the standard silver dollar con-
tains of silver of nine-tenths fineness, 425.5 grains. In round num-
bers, the following table represents the weight of ^1,000,000 in the
coins named : —
Description of Coin. Tons.
Standard gold coin i%
Standard silver coin 26^
Subsidiary silver coin 25
Minor coin, five-cent nickel 100
MARVELS OF MINING.
459
REDUCTION OF ORES.
When ores are brought to the surface of the earth, the metals
which they contain are to be extracted therefrom. In this difficult
art great progress has been made since the discover) of gold in
California. At first only from fifteen to forty per cent of gold and
silver was actually saved. The expense of extracting them was often
too great to leave any margin for profits. The trouble was chiefly in
not knowing how. For more than a quarter of a century capitalists
in the mining business have been learning how, so that now a much
larger per cent of metals is saved ; and ores that formerly did
not pay for working, now yield a handsome income. Remarkable
improvement in machinery for
I . reducing ores has been made
in this period, illustrating the
familiar maxim that "necessity
is the mother of invention."
First, there is the stamp-mill
process, which has been used
more or less from the start for
the low-grade gold ores. The
cut well represents the machine,
and Mr. Fossett's ^ description
of it, which we quote, will give
the reader a correct idea of it.
" The stamp-mill process is
very imperfect, but has been
vastly improved during the past
fifteen years, as far as opera-
tions in Colorado are concerned. At one time only from fifteen
to forty per cent of the gold contained in the ore was saved, while
from fifty to seventy per cent, and occasionally more, are saved at
the present time. One mill claims a saving of over eighty-five per
cent, including returns of huddled tailings. Blankets and pans help
to increase the returns.
'* The mill proper consists of a solid framework, heavy iron
stamps and attachments, propelled by steam or water power by means
of a horizontal shaft and connections. Mortars, inclined tables, and
other accessories go to make up the contents of the establishment.
TEN-STAMP QUARTZ MILL.
1 Colorado, pp. 226, 227.
46o MARVELS OF THE AEIV WEST.
The framework is upright, as are also the iron stamps, which are
made to rise and fall by means of cams, or arms, extending from the
revolving shaft above. The stamps rise from twelve to eighteen
inches, and drop on the ore in iron mortars or troughs beneath, from
twenty-seven to thirty-five times per minute. These mortars are
several feet long, and from twelve to fourteen inches high, and nine
or ten deep, and rest on solid wooden foundations. They are placed
between the upright wooden posts of the frame ; the stamps, usually
five in number, that rise and fall thereon, form what is termed a
battery. The mortars are the receptacles for the ore, which is
shovelled or fed into them as fast as it can be advantageously crushed
by the stamps, at the same time th^t a constant stream of water flows
in the same direction. Some mills have but a single battery of five
stamps ; others have ten or twenty, and there are some that have
fifty and seventy-five.
" On the side of the mortars where the ore feeding is done, the
framework is boarded up some distance, and on the other side are
sheet-iron screens, through which the pulverized ore and water is
forced on to the sloping copper-plated inclines or tables below.
Quicksilver is fed into the batteries and on to the tables when the
mill man deems it necessary. This retains most of the gold on the
tables, while the pulp or slimes from the batteries are being carried
onward by the water to the huddling tanks or stream beyond. The
stamps are stopped, the water turned off, and the mortars and the
plates of the tables are cleaned once a day, or once in several days,
and the amalgam, or gold and quicksilver combination, is taken to the
retort-room. Here it is skimmed and cleaned and pressed in a cloth,
so as to get rid of as much of the quicksilver as possible ; the
remainder is retorted, and the crude bullion sold at the banks at from
fourteen to eighteen dollars per ounce, or shipped in other ways.
Gold from different mines varies in fineness and value, the quantity
of silver accompanying it having much to do with this. The average
fineness of Gilpin County bullion or retort gold is seven hundred and
eighty-seven parts pure gold, one hundred and ninety-eight parts pure
silver, and fifteen parts copper. The bullion obtained is from one-
fourth to one-half of the amalgam, but rarely the latter. The quick-
silver, after being condensed, is saved for future use.
'' After the pulverized ore leaves the batteries it is usually washed
over two sets of inclined tables, the lower ones being covered with
blankets. Some mills use pans, modelled after the principle of an
arrastra. The pulp or slimes, on leaving the mill proper, are gen-
MARVELS OF MINING. 46,
erally worked over or concentrated by washing or huddling, when the
concentrates are sold to the smelters. This often adds a dollar or
two per ton to the total receipts from the ore. Formerly no effort
was made to save anything beyond the tables. About one ton of
these taihngs can be saved and sold to every ten tons of ore crushed
The stamps used in these mills weigh from five hundred to seven
hundred pounds, are generally ten or twelve feet high, and consist of
a stem, head, shoe, .and a collar, by means of which the cam raises
SMELTING WORKS AT ARGO.
them. The stem is made of wrought iron, and is from two to three
inches m diameter, while the shoes attached to the lower part of the
stem, and which come in contact with the ore, are thicker, and are
made of steel or hardened iron. The stamps crush the ore to a pulp
or powder, and much of the gold contained therein falls to the bottom
of the mortars, and is taken up by the quicksilver placed there
Other portions of the gold are caught on the tables, blankets, and in
the pans.
Many machines for crushing ores have been in use, but a fev
462
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
only have proved effective. " Blake's Jaw Crusher " stands at the head
of the list for thorough and extensive work. '' Dodge's Crusher,"
and Allen's, also, rank high. Many an aspirant for the honor of
bringing out the best machine for crushing has retired from the field
at heavy pecuniary loss and heavier disappointment.
SMELTING.
The richest ores are sent to the smelters, which have become
numerous throughout the New West. Many and great improve-
ments have been made in smelting ores within twenty years. The
GOLD AND SILVER.
first successful smelting establishment was erected by the " Boston
and Colorado Smelting Company," at Blackhawk, in 1864, and was
removed to Argo, two miles from Denver, in 1878. Hon. N. P. Hill
is the general manager, under whose efficient direction the enter-
MARVELS OF MINING.
463
prise has been eminently successful. The sketch (p. 461) is from a
photograph of the works.
The buildings occupy a lot of eight acres, all of which is enclosed
by a high stone wall. Many cottages for the accommodation of the
families of workmen have been erected within the enclosure. Two
hundred and fifty men are employed in the works. The first build-
ing reached, after passing through the gate,
is five hundred feet long and one hundred
wide, used for crushing and baking ores.
It has four crushers and twenty-four ovens.
In the next building the ore is smelted by
eight furnaces, capable of smelting one hun-
dred and twenty-eight tons daily. From
this building the smelted ore is conveyed to
the next one, where the crushing and baking
processes are repeated, before the product
is sent to the tub and refining rooms.
The capital of this company is ^1,500,000,
and about half of a million in bullion is
turned out monthly. More than 07ic viillion
dollars is the value of ores which the com-
pany constantly carries. Railway tracks
are laid to the works from the Colorado
Central, over which the immense freight is
hauled. The Argo and Grant Smelters, of Denver, together em-
ploy from four to five hundred men, and the annual aggregate of
their bullion product amounts to twelve million dollars.
The process of extracting and refining gold and silver results in
producing the pure metal. The above cut shows a ton of pure silver
in cakes or bricks of an average weight. When melted into solid
bars, instead of bricks, the average weight of the bars is one thou-
sand seven hundred ounces, valued at nearly two thousand dollars.
Bars or bricks of gold range in value from fifteen thousand dollars to
twenty-five thousand dollars.
A TON OF PURE SILVER.
LEADVILLE.
The most famous mining town in the world must be a marvel ;
and that town is Leadville. In the autumn of 1877 there were about
three hundred souls within the township, including, perhaps, ten or
twelve families. One year later there were six thousand inhabitants.
464 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
occupying about two thousand dwellings, such as they were. Rich
gold mines were discovered, and the rush began. Before the close
of 1879, it was claimed that the population of Leadville reached thirty
thousand. The value of precious metals mined in 1878 was three
and one-half millions; and in 1879, nearly twelve millio7is. Mr.
Kent claimed, for 1879, ^^^^ ^^^ above product was over thirty-one
thousand dollars for each day of the year, over thirteen hundred dol-
lars for each hour of the day, about twenty-two dollars for each
minute, and thirty-six cents for each second, day and night, for the
whole year. More than five hufidrrd thotisajid dollars was sent by
miners, in money-orders, through the Leadville post-office, to friends,
in 1879. These money-orders were so many messengers, sent all
over the land to proclaim that Leadville was the richest mining
camp in the world. It was not strange that the tide of emigration
settirig thitherward increased in volume from month to month.
A large criminal class came with the crowd, but soon were forced
to conform to municipal law, or move on to other fields. In less
than two years from the time of opening the rich mines, the town
could boast a strong city government, with ample means to maintain
itself ; well-organized police and fire departments ; water-works to
supply the city with water, and gas-works to supply it with light ;
one bank with deposits amounting to eight Juuidred thousa7id dollars^
and another six Jnmdrcd thoitsajid, with exchange for 1879 amount-
ing to te7i million dollars ; three daily newspapers ; a free-school
system established, and five high-school buildings erected, with a
competent and experienced educator for superintendent of schools ;
and four Protestant churches, with efficient pastors, together with a
Catholic cathedral nearly completed, at an expense of tlm^ty thousand
dollars. All this accomplished in less than two years !
The Leadville of to-day is a well-ordered city of twenty thousand
inhabitants, industrious, enterprising, and thrifty. The "floating
population " has floated away, leaving the intelligent and reliable
class to control and build up a town of grand possibilities.
The city is located between two lofty ranges of mountains,
more than ten thousand feet above the sea-level, and therefore
above the clouds, and hence called "the city of the clouds." Its
streets are wide, and the chief^ ones are lined with as extensive and
well-stocked warehouses as are found in Eastern cities. Indeed, few
towns of its size in New England can boast of as large a music
store as we saw on its principal street. Its public buildings — espe-
cially its opera-house — would be regarded with pride in the best
MARVELS OF MINING.
465
towns of the East. Its newest and largest hotel is represented
below. It bears the name of Leadville's most successful capitalist
and generous benefactor, — Hon. Horace A. W. Tabor, of whom the
editor of the Herald- Democrat says : "He may justly be styled the
father of Leadville. Having rocked its cradle in infancy, and sustained
it generously through childhood, he is entitled to its allegiance and rev-
erence in its maturity, both of which he unquestionably possesses."
The Grand Tabor is a large, costly hotel, built of brick, with stone
trimmings, and furnished as elegantly as the best hotels east of the
Mississippi.
TABOR GRAND.
A single fact illustrates the magnitude, cheapness, and reliability
of Leadville's market. A new citizen desired to purchase a fine gold
watch, and he wrote a friend in New York City to purchase it for
him at Tiffany's. The friend called at that famous store, and made
known his errand. The manager replied : " We will sell you a watch
for your Leadville friend ; but he can purchase just as good a watch
of Joslin & Park, Leadville, as we can sell you, and get it just as
cheap, and save heavy express charges." This fact was communicated
to the citizen of Leadville, and the watch was bought in that city.
Leadville has been supposed by the Eastern people to be exceed-
ingly mean, morally, — next door to the pit, possibly; but we assure
4^6 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
the reader that it is really a Christian city to-day, because its eight
or ten active churches give tone and direction to public thought and
sentiment. Vice is no more prevalent than it is in Eastern cities, and
crime does not make so black a record as it does in numerous Eastern
towns we might name. In the autumn of 1883, the writer walked
through its principal thoroughfare after nine o'clock in the evening,
and witnessed the same order and quiet to which he had been accus-
tomed at home. True, the doors of saloons were thrown wide open,
and they were thronged with miners from the suburbs ; but the crowd
was orderly and quiet. Just before our visit there, a member of the
city government knocked down a man on the street, with whom he
had an altercation ; and forthwith he was arraigned by his associates,
who, after due examination, moved to expel him from their body, and
would have accomplished their purpose, had not legal counsel decided
that only the people who elected could depose him. But the citizens
accepted the will for the deed ; and we assured one of them that such
an honorable regard for the dignity and reputation of the city govern-
ment was not possible in New York or Boston.
The banking business of this remarkable city is a prominent factor
in its history. '* The Carbonate Bank is the leading financial institu-
tion, established," says the editor of the Herald-Democrat, ''less for
the purpose of pecuniary gain than to furnish an absolutely safe de-
pository for the large sums of money which it was necessary to keep
at easy command, for use by mining and smelting men in their exten-
sive financial transactions."
This authority furnishes the following facts taken from the books
of the institution : —
'* The amount of money received and paid to depositors, for the
year 1885, was over thirty-eight millions of dollars ($38,000,000).
"The average deposits carried for the first six months of 1885, was
three hundred ninety-tJiree thousand four dollars ($393,004).
** The average amount of deposits carried for the second six months
of 1885, was four Jinndred 7tinety-one tJioiisand one hundred forty dol-
lars ($491,140).
" The average daily cash balance carried for the twelve months of
1885, was two Jiundred fifty thousand one htrndi^ed sixty-three dollars
($250,163).
" The average per cent of available cash to deposits for the year
1885, was fifty-seven per cent (.57).
" The number of depositors at the present time is ten hundj^ed and
fifty (1050).
MARVELS OF MINING.
467
"The number of drafts drawn during the year was eleven thojisand
three hundred thirty -six (i 1,336).
"The total amount of the drafts drawn was five million nine hun-
dred seventeen tJiousand dollars (5,917,000).
"The average number of drafts drawn was thirty-seven (37) for
each business day during the year."
LOOKING WEST FROM PRINTER BOY HILL.
Leadville schools would be an honor to any city of New England.
In February, 1878, the first school was opened in a rude log house,
where thirty boys and girls were taught by Mrs. A. R. Undergraff.
In eighteen months from that time, there were twelve public schools
and thirteen teachers. One year later, there were twenty-one teachers
and two thousand pupils. In May, 1881, an elegant school building,
built of brick and highly ornamented with stone trimmings, was com-
pleted at an expense of sixty-two tJiousand dollar's. It is eighty-one
468 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
feet long and seventy-nine wide, two stories high above the base-
ment, the latter portion being devoted to play rooms, janitor's room,
and office of the superintendent of the city schools. Each story of
the building is sixteen feet high, the whole heated by four furnaces
in the cellar, and supplied with water and gas pipes.
The erection of this schoolhouse was followed by the building of
another at a cost of forty-five thousa?td dollars. In the autumn of
'83, we found two additional schoolhouses (making four in all),
which cost forty tJioiisand dollars each. In five and one-half years
from the time of opening the first school in the log cabin, we found,
by personal observation, a complete system of graded schools, includ-
ing a thoroughly equipped high school, with nearly two thousand
pupils enrolled in four elegant buildings, with a corps of experienced
teachers, whose services were obtained only by the payment of large
salaries. To-day the schools of Leadville lose nothing in comparison
with the best schools of the land. No teacher is paid less than
twenty dollars a week ; and the best-paid ones xqcqivq forty-two dollars
per week. Most of them came from the East, where they had already
won a reputation for skilful work in the schoolroom.
''But what of Leadville's output of gold and silver.?" the reader
inquires. It is this marvellous showing, of course, which especially
interests the outside world. The city's great mining interest de-
mands great facilities for business. Hence, everything is done on a
magnificent scale, as the following facts prove : —
''There are fourteen miles of switches in the Leadville depot
yards, including smelter yards and sampling works tracks.
" Four hundred and fifty cars are handled daily in the yards at
Leadville, six consolidated engines, twenty-eight switchmen, and
six yard conductors are required to perform this service, owing to
the heavy grades, the maximum grade being three hundred and five
feet to the mile and thirty degrees curvature.
"Twenty-five cars of coal is the daily consumption at Leadville.
" Ore shipments from Red Cliff, Kokomo, and Robinson, to Lead-
ville are now ten cars per day regularly.
"The Leadville smelters consume daily ten cars of coke, twenty-
five cars of charcoal, twelve cars of lime rock, two cars of burnt lime,
five car-s of coal, and seven cars of wood.
" The Denver and Rio Grande has eight passenger trains arriving
and departing daily from Leadville.
" The Denver, South Park, and Pacific has two passenger and two
accommodation trains to and from Leadville daily.
MARVELS OF MINING. 4^9
'' Twenty-eight freight trains arrive and depart on the roads at
Leadville daily."
The total product of Leadville's mines in 1885 was twelve million
tJiree himdred fifty-seven tJionsand six hundred sixty-tivo dollars
($12,357,662). The product for seven years is as follows : —
1879 ^10,333,740
1880 15,025,135
1881 13,147,257
1882 17,127,402
1883 15,538,446
1884 12,837,497
1885 12,357,662
Total ^96,367,139
Almost one hundred millions in seven years ! More than half of
Colorado's entire product of gold and silver in 1885 yielded by the
Leadville district.
The year 1886 was the most prosperous year for the city since
1880; and, at this time of writing, mining was nevermore profitable;
old mines continuing to reward their owners generously and new
mines opening rich, while real estate is booming, and everybody is
hopeful and happy. The Herald-Democrat, Jan. i, 1887, speaks of
the increased yield of gold, silver, lead, and iron, in 1886, as
follows : —
''The production of the Leadville mines during the past year
aggregates $13,750,733. The amount is far in excess of the most
sanguine estimates, showing a gain over the previous year of $1,393,-
071. In addition to this, there is an excess of ore on hand at the
Leadville smelters of about 25,000 tons, compared with Dec. 31,
1885, possessing a value of over $1,000,000, which, by a proper
system of calculating the output of a mining district, should be taken
in consideration, and which would swell the total production to
$14,750,733. It has, however, been the custom, in compiling the
annual production of Leadville, to include only such items as repre-
sent actual transactions and shipments, i.e., bullion shipped to the
refiners, ore sent to smelters out of the city for reduction, and gold
and silver bars sent to the United States mints. Thus the full pro-
duction of Leadville mines is not always accurately arrived' at, but
depends largely on the amount of ore on hand at the smelters, as
compared with the previous years. ' At present the Leadville smelters
carry a stock of about 50,000 tons of ore, against about 24,000 tons
twelve months ago."
470 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
The same authority furnishes the following tables
The Grand Aggregate.
LEAD IN
TONS.
SILVER IN
OUNCES.
GOLD IN
OUNCES.
VALUE.
15ullion Production
Miscellaneous Shipments . .
25.962
22,526
4.569.013
3.597.132
22,504
14,042
$7,515,184.30
6,135,585.00
48,488
8,166,145
36,546
13750,733-30
The following table shows the production of each metal and the
tons of ore shipped from Leadville to other points for treatment
since 1877 : —
Metals Classified.
YEAR.
tons of lead.
OUNCES OF SILVER. OUNCES OF GOLD.
TONS OF ORE.
•877
1878
1879
1880
I88I
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
175
2,324
17,650
33,551
38,101
43.024
36,870
35.296
19,127
25,962
376,827
450,476
6,004,416
8,999,399
7,162,909
7.273.249
5.313.638
5,720,904
5.130,079
4,566,013
2,750
897
1,100
1,688
13,182
16,413
25,169
27,617
12,312
22,504
3.300
15,840
18,540
12,410
15.639
90,102
160,890
112,805
132,001
138,335
Total
252,080
5 1 ,000,900
123,641
699,862
The value of the total product of the Leadville district since i860
is as follows : —
860 to 1879 $10,700,000
879 10,333,740
880 15.025,135
13.147.257
17,127,402
15,538,446
12,837,497
12,357,662
13.750,833
Total $120,817,972
881
882
883
884
885
886
MARVELS OF MINING.
471
Horace A. W. Tabor was a merchant in Leadville, selling such
goods as miners required. One day two men called upon him, —
August Rische and George T. Hook, — signifying that they had
abandoned shoemaking for gold-hunting, and found themselves with-
out money to prosecute their purpose. After considerable discussion
about the mining business and future prospects. Tabor agreed to fur-
FRYER HILL.
nish them with an outfit, which would amount to about seventeen
dollars each, and provide them food, for one-third interest in their
discoveries. The two men went to work with a will, and when they
had sunk a shaft twenty-six feet, mineral was found so rich that a
wagon load of ore sold for two hundred dollars. They christened
the mine Little Pittsburg, and Tabor became a rich man. Within
four or five months they extracted three hundred and seventy-five
thousand dollars ($375,000) from the mine, and purchased every
4/2 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. '
available mine they could in the vicinity. The Minnemuck, near by,
yielded one hundred and twelve thousand dollars (^112,000) in forty-
nine days. At this juncture, the owners of the Little Pittsburg,
New Discovery, Dives, and Minnemuck united their interests under
the name of Little Pittsburg Consolidated Company, with capital
stock of twenty millions ($20,000,000). From this time the yield was
enormous. The productions of the mines belonging to this company
amounted to the almost incredible sum of two million six hundred
ninety-seven thousand five hundred thirty-four dollars and ninety-one
cents ($2,697,534.91) within eighteen months.
In the eleven months immediately preceding April i, 1880, the
ore sold amounted to one million five Iiundred ninety thousand two
Jiundred thirteen dollars and eigJity-07ie cents ($1,590,213.81). The
profits were one inillioii two htmdred ninety-one thousand five hundred
seventy-eight dollars and forty -seve7t cents ($1,291,578. 47) .
The Chrysolite mine is another bonanza. After yielding more
than half a million dollars within four or five months, it was united
with several other valuable mines under the name of Chrysolite Con-
solidated Company, with capital stock of ten millions ($10,000,000),
swelling the amount of product, in a few months more, to ojte million
five hundred ninety-four thousand three hundred sixty dollars and
forty-seven cents ($1,594,360.47).
The Little Chief was located by four poor, hard-working men,
who took from it one hundred thousand dollars ($ioo,ooo) within three
or four months, and then sold it to J. V. Farwell, of Chicago, for
three hundred thousand {$100,000). The total product of this mine
to April I, 1880, was two million four Jiundred seventy-three thousand
eight hundred fifty-seven dollars and Jiinety-eight cents ($2,473,857.98).
When it was paying monthly dividends of one hundred thousand dol-
lars, it was sold to a New York company with a capital stock of ten
million dollars ($10,000,000).
The Amie is situated on the summit of Fryer Hill. It was dis-
covered in the summer of 1879, ^^d soon after the Amie Consolida-
ted Mining Company was organized, with capital stock of five mil-
lion ($5,000,000). Within six months the yield amounted to half
a million dollars.
The Morning Star did not promise well at first, and was sold to
Governor Routt. The energy and labor which he put into its
development soon converted it into a bonanza. In the summer and
autumn of 1879, its product was two hundred ninety thousand four
hundred ninety-one dollars and tivcnty-six cents ($290,491.26). In
MARVELS OF MINING.
473
n e 2 i
'Prttl
f
474 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
January, 1880, its yield was ;^70,6oo ; in February, ;^70,ooo ; in March,
^75,000; and in April the Morning Star Consolidated Mining Com-
pany was organized, with a capital stock of six niillio7is ($6,000,000).
The Dunkin opened well in the summer of 1879, ^"d in two or three
months yielded $35,000, when it was sold to ex-Governor A. H. Rice
and Hon. John B. Alley, of Massachusetts, and Hon. James G. Blaine,
of Maine, for $300,000. The ore bodies of this mine range from one
to twenty-seven feet in thickness, and the ore yields from fifty-eight
to two hundred and seventy-four ounces per ton, and from ten to
sixty per cent of lead.
The following paragraph, interjected here from Fossett's ''Colo-
rado," furnishes important information respecting the ores of Lead-
ville : —
*'The ores of Leadville district are treated by smelting without
roasting, nature having obviated the necessity of the latter. The
same method has long been in use in Missouri, Utah, and elsewhere.
Ores are smelted in what are known as water-jacket furnaces, con-
structed of iron, of circular or square shape, six feet more or less in
diameter, and of much greater height. They are lined internally
with fire clay and rest on a cement and clay foundation. The ore is
shovelled into the furnaces along with the necessary proportions of
coke, charcoal, and slag, from a floor over that where the bullion is
discharged, the furnaces being uprights and extending upwards
through the building, with outlets for fumes and smoke above. The
proper mixture of ores and fuel are important points to success, and
the more refractory the ores the greater the care needed to avoid
chilling the furnace and other troubles. Weighing the ores is one
means of determining their character, as the per cent of lead can
thus be approximated. The molten mass separates itself in the fur-
nace according to its specific gravity, the lead with its silver con-
tents settling into a lead well at the bottom and one side, from which
it is dipped into iron moulds, where it cools into bars of about one
hundred pounds weight. Furnaces are run night and day from one
month's end to another ; to allow them to cool down would entail
a heavy expense in drilling out the mass of iron and slag that
would have to be removed, and in fact would stop business com-
pletely."
But the most famous of all the mines of Leadville is the Robert
E. Lee. It is claimed that no mine in the world ever yielded silver
ores of so high a grade. It embraces about five acres of ground.
The whole property was originally purchased for $7000. In August,
MARVELS OF MINING. 47 S
1879, work was pushed, and at the depth of one hundred and fifty
feet the richest silver ore in the world was discovered. Other silver
mines had surprised the most credulous ; but the unsurpassed rich-
ness of this mine was well-nigh incredible to many. The first three
months foi^r hnndred ninety-five thousand dollars ($495,000) were
taken out. In October, one hundred tiventy-five tJiousa7id dollars
($125,000) were taken out in ten days, the ore yielding 520 ounces
of silver per ton. In January, 1880, the yield reached the extraor-
dinary amount of tJwee hundred one tJiousand four hundred ninety-
four dollars and seventy -nine cents ($301,494.79). On the 13th day of
January, 1880, there were taken out in twenty-four hours $118,500,
the average of the ore being $1200 a ton. Two tons yielded 23,678
ounces of silver, or 11,839 ounces per ton. From the middle of
August, 1879, to Feb i, 1880, one inillion dollars were taken from
the mine.
Mr. Kent says : '' On the 3d of January, six out of the seven
owners inspected the mine and gazed in wonderment upon the
astounding wealth of recent developments. Mr. Sigafus, one of the
owners and resident manager of the mine, offered his partners his
check for $10,000 to be permitted to work for one hour upon a
certain spot in the floor of one level where the rich crevice was
exposed, agreeing to work with a pick only, and within lines drawn
about a four-foot square. Pennock & Roudebush offered $200,000
for the privilege of working twenty men upon a shift for thirty-six
hours, in a certain other named locality, and own the ore they could
raise to the surface in that space of time. Both these offers were
declined."
In conversation with a citizen of Leadville, who showed us valu-
able attention, we remarked : —
'' It will not take long to exhaust many of these mines, I sup-
pose."
" Not in your day, nor mine," he replied. '' At first, it was sup-
posed that a few months or years would exhaust even the best of
them, but recent developments assure us that all such fears are
groundless."
"Then new mines are being opened almost daily," we suggested.
"Yes, and we have only just begun to explore the earth beneath
us," he continued. " Only a small per cent of our mineral lands are
worked as yet. Science and experience are teaching us to mine
more economically and profitably every year ; and we shall be able to
accumulate larger profits in future for this reason."
476 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
t
'' We can scarcely expect to discover another Leadville," we inter-
jected.
"Not so sure about that," he answered. *'The best authorities
say, from personal examination, that the Rocky Mountains are full of
precious metals. I should not be surprised if another Leadville
were discovered any day. Prospectors have as much encouragement
to persevere in their work now as they ever had ; and, indeed, I
think they have more reason to be hopeful and expect great strikes
than they had ten years ago."
''Well, I am glad to hear these views," we replied; ''for, with
Eastern people generally, I have supposed that the mining business
was temporary as well as very uncertain. But I am fast getting
enlightened. I have seen enough already to satisfy me that the
poorest part of our territory — the Rocky Mountains — is the rich-
est ; and that the time is not distant when there will be more
millionnaires in the New West than in all the rest of the country."
" I am not sure but that is the fact already," my friend replied ;
"at least, including those who get their riches here, but live else-
where."
" I suppose you will go down into a mine while you are here,"
remarked a citizen of whom we were making inquiries. " To omit
that in your visit to this mining camp would be the play of Hamdet
with Hamlet left out."
" Well^ yes, I should like to explore one of these mines," we
replied. " Are visitors admitted at any time } "
" Not exactly. Some of them do not admit visitors at all ; others
admit them at specified times. I think the Morning Star admits them
at any time, and that is one of the best mines to visit. If you never
went down through a shaft into the bowels of the earth, it will be a
great novelty to you."
" No particular danger, I suppose," we responded ; "if there were,
so many men would not be ready to go down to their work daily."
" No, no great danger ; accidents sometimes happen, and they do
on the surface of the earth," our friend replied. "They will provide
you with a suit of clothes, without much regard to style or personal
appearance ; for it is a wet, nasty place through which you descend
into a larger and dirtier world below. You will scarcely know your-
self when you are arrayed for the adventure ; you will look extremely
comical, whether you feel so or not."
"Well, I think I will try one of the mines," we added; "I shall
scarcely feel satisfied to return to the East without seeing the inside
MARVELS OF MINING.
477
of a mine. To come two thousand miles to see a mine, and then not
see one, won't pay."
An hour afterwards we were on our way to the Morning Star,
when we met a good-looking man of middle age, whom we accosted.
"Are you a citizen of Leadville, sir .^ " we asked.
" Yes, sir ; I am one of the pioneers ; came here with the rush
five years ago," he answered very cordially.
" I propose to go down into a mine, and started for the Morning
Star," we continued. ''Am I in the right way .^ "
" Yes, you are right ; and if you want to descend into a mine, you
may ; but I don't," he answered.
''Then you are not connected with the mining business.'*"
DRIFTING ANl) bHAFT-SIH KII'JG.
" No, I am a trader ; and I have never been down into a mine
since I have lived here, and never expect to."
"You surprise me," we replied*; "I supposed that nearly every-
body in Leadville had explored one or more mines."
" Quite the contrary ; some of us think too much of our lives to
make the adventure until we are compelled to. It is a wet, nasty,
dangerous feat, and I rather be excused."
" How is that } I was not aware that there was any particular
peril to life or limb," we added.
" Perhaps there is not ; but my taste is not in that direction,' said
the stranger smilingly. "To ride in a bucket down into the earth
five hundred or a thousand feet has no attractions for me."
4/8 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
By this time the adventure had Httle attractions for us, and we
thanked the outspoken man for his kindly words, and passed on. But
we did not reach the Morning Star. We concluded to leave Hamlet
out of the play. What if I should not know myself when arrayed for
the descent into regions below, and, being among strangers, no one
there to introduce me ! What if I should more than fill the bucket
and slop over ! More than two thousand miles from home, and five
hundred feet from daylight ! Ws concluded that we should live just
as long, if not longer, by continuing our life on the earth's surface.
PROFITS OF MINING.
In 1 88 1 a competent party made the following estimate of the
profits of mining in Colorado : —
" I. The population of the State of Colorado is 195,234.
" 2. The number of the population of the State who are voters is
53,420.
'' 3. It is not reasonable to suppose that more than one-third of
the men in the State are engaged in mining and smelting. This
number would be 17,804.
" 4. Supposing that they labor during an average of two hundred
days in the year at $2.00 per day, this would give as the cost of the
total production of the State $7,121,600.
" 5. Add to this interest on improvements amounting to $20,000,-
000 at six per cent — equal to $1,200,000 — and we find the total
cost to be $8,321,600.
*' 6. But the total production of the precious metals in Colorado
during the year 1880 was $24,000,000.
'' 7. It follows, then, that after paying the cost of labor and six
per cent interest on the money invested in plans for mining and re-
duction, there was a profit remaining of $15,678,400.
*' 8. It is thus shown that the average cost of producing a gold
or silver dollar in Colorado during the past year was less than forty
cents."
Experience, improvement in machinery, and other facilities have
reduced the expense of mining, so that good authorities claim that a
dollar, gold or silver, costs but thirty-three cents. During the five
years that have elapsed since the above estimate for 1880, Colorado's
outfit of gold, silver, lead and copper, has been over one Jmndred mil-
lion dollars ($100,000,000). The cost of gathering this harvest has
been thirty-three viillion dollars ($33,000,000), leaving a profit to the
MARVELS OF MINING. 479
State of sixty-seven million dollars ($67,000,000). As the output of
the State has been over two himdred thirty-nine million dollars
($239,000,000), since the rush to Pike's Peak in 1859, the profit, allow-
ing forty cents to be the cost of a dollar, would amount to more than
one hundred fifty-three million dollars ($153,000,000). Allowing the
cost of a dollar to be thirty-three cents, the profits would reach
nearly one himdred sixty million dollars ($160,000,000).
The mining product of Colorado from 1881 to 1887 was as fol-
lows : —
1881 $22,203,508.72
1882 26,750,898.00
1883 26,376,562.00
1884 20,250,000.00
1885 22,500,000.00
1886 26,794,688.00
Total $144,876,656.72
The mining product of Colorado from 1876 to 1880 was as fol-
lows : —
1876 $6,191,907.82
1877 7,216,283.53
1878 10,008,116.00
1879 19,110,862.00
1880 23,500,000.00
Total $66,027,169.35
From the discovery of gold in Colorado to 1887, the output has
been as follows : —
Mining Product of Colorado from 1859 to 1887.
YEAR. GOLD.
f
SILVER.
COPPER.
LEAD.
TOTAL.
Dollars.
Dollars.
Dollars.
Dollars.
Dollars.
Prior to 1870
27,213,081.00
330,000.00
40,000.00
27,583,081.00
1870 . . . . ! 2,000,000.00
650,000.00
20,000.00
2,680,000.00
1871
. 2,000,000.00
1,029,046.00
30,000.00
3,059,046.00
1872
•
1,725,000.00
2,015,000.00
45,000.00
5,000.00
3,790,000.00
1873
1,750,000.00
2,185,000.00
65,000.00
28,000.00
4,028,000.00
1874
. 1 2,002,487.00
3,096,023.00
90,197.00
73,676.00
5,262,383.00
,875
. 2,161,475.00
3,122,912.00
90,000.00
60,000.00
5,434,387.02
1876
. 2,726,315.82
3,315,592.00
70,000.00
80,000.00
6,191,907.82
1877
. 3,148,707.56
3,726,379-33
93.796.64
247,400.00
7,216,283.53
1878
. 1 3,490,384.36
6,341,807.81
89,000.00
636,974.73
10,558,1 16.90
48o
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Mining Product of Colorado from 1859 to
1887 — Coviiniied.
YEAR.
GOLD.
SILVER.
COPPER.
LEAD.
TOTAL.
Dollars.
Dollars.
Dollars.
Dollars.
Dollars.
1879 ....
3,193,500.00
15,385,000.00
532,362.00
19,110,862.00
1880 ....
3,206,500.00 18,615,000.00
1,678,500.00
23,500,000.00
I88I ....
1
22,203,508.72
1882 ....
26,750,898.00
1883 ....
...
...
26,376,562.00
1884 ....
...
20,250,000.00
1885 ....
22,500,000.00
1886 ....
...
26,794,688.00
Grand Total
...
265,874,656.72
Table showing the standing of fifteen of the best paying mines
in Colorado, Jan. i, 1885 : —
NAME OF MINE.
Little Pittsburg
Bassick Mining Company
Chrysolite
Iron vSilver
Little Chief
Dunkin -
La Plata
Leadville Consolidated . .
Evening Star
Robinson Consolidated , .
Small Hopes
Morning Stnr
Moose Mining Company .
Colorado Consolidated . .
Amie Consolidated ....
NO. OF SHARES.
CAPITAL STOCK.
DIVIDENDS PAID TO
DATE.
200,000
$20,000,000
$1,050,000
100,000
10,000,000
425,000
200,000
10,000,000
1 ,650,000
500,000
10,000,000
1,320,000
200,000
10,000,000
760,000
200,000
5,000,000
220,212
200,000
2,000,000
610,000
400,000
4,000,000
390,000
50,000
500,000
1,400,000
200,000
10,000,000
700,000
250,000
5,000,000
800,000
100,000
1 ,000,000
740,000
200,000
2,000,000
550,000
65,000
1,625,000
251,875
500,000
5,000,000
330,000
THE MARIPOSA ESTATE.
When California was under the dominion of Mexico, this estate
was a grant by the Mexican government to Juan B. Alvarado, and it
was purchased by Fremont in 1847. When, a year later, it passed
MARVELS OF MINING. 48 1
into the possession of the United States, Fremont presented his
claim to the United States land commission, and it was confirmed in
February, 1856, and the patent issued. Litigation followed, so that
it was not until 1859 that Fremont came into full possession of the
large property, which embraces an area of seventy miles square, or
44,380 acres. It extends twelve miles from east to west, and twelve
and one-half miles from north to south. It includes the towns of
Mariposa, Bridgeport, Guadalupe, Arkansas, Flat, Lower Agua Fria,
Princeton, Mount Ophir, and Bear Valley.
As soon as Fremont's title was fully established, mining began on
the property and the yield of gold was very large. The monthly
production in i860 was $39,500; in 1861, $53,000; in 1862, notwith-
standing the great flood which interrupted mming for a time, $43,-
500; and in the first five months of 1863, $77,000. In March, 1863,
$94,000 were taken out; in April, $92,000; and in May, $101,000.
From that time the average monthly production amounted to about
$100,000, with the promise of a still larger yield. Mining engineers
prophesied the most marvellous results. One of them. Dr. J. Adel-
berg, said, in a report : —
*' In regard to the value of the veins, I can say no more than that
their yield in precious metal is limited only by the amount of work
done in them ; but I recollect Mr. Fremont once commissioning me
to make an estimate as to their endurance in the limits of the longi-
tudinal extent now opened. I found by calculation that they would
yield for 388 years 100 tons daily, without the requisition of pumps.
I mean down to the water level."
In December, 1862, Timothy C. Allen made a report upon the
property, and said that the yield might be increased $100,000
monthly. Messrs. Makely & Garnett thought the property might
readily be worked so as to yield $220,000 monthly, at an expense of
only $50,000, leaving $170,000 the net monthly income.
These reports added to the fame of the Mariposa mines, and just
then a company was organized in New York City to work them,
with a capital stock of ten viillioii dollars ($10,000,000). The com-
pany was formed by Fremont's creditors, who took a mortgage upon
\.\\^ \iXo^^xX.y iox fifteen viillion dollars ($15,000,000). Through mis-
management, the company ran into debt each month, notwithstand-
ing the large production of the mines. At that time the property
contained more than a thousand auriferous quartz veins, only thirty
of them worked, and these only partially. The five months im-
mediately preceding the organization of the aforesaid company,
482 MARVELS OF THE NEW. WEST.
the property yielded three himdred eigJity-five thousand dollars
($385,000).
The Princeton was one of the mines on the Fremont grant, and
yielded ninety tJiousaiid dollaj's ($90,000) a month for a time ; and
this was more than any other mine in California ever did. In
five months of i860 (from June i to Nov. i), the mine yielded
five hundred twejity-seven tJwnsand six Juindred thirty-three dollars
($527,633). In 1862 and 1863 its output was tzuo million dollars
($2,000,000). In 1864 the yield amounted to two hundred forty-three
thousand seve7i hundred seven dollars ($243,707). Within seven
or eight years after Fremont's title to the estate was established,
more than four million dollars ($4,000,000) were taken out.
The Oso mine proved very rich, and/<?;/r Jiundred thousand dollars
($400,000) were taken from a shaft fifty feet deep and seven feet
long on the vein.
The output of the Princeton, Mariposa, Pine Tree, and Josephine
mines, in i860, was $474,000; in 1861, $642,000; in 1862, $522,000;
in 1863, $385,000, with $50,000 net per month; in 1864, $481,832,
and in 1865, $230,000.
The Sonora produced $80,000 in May, 1865 ; in June, $84,000; in
July, $95,000; in August, $102,000; in September, $91,000.
The total production of the Kincaid Flat to 1867 was two million
dollars ($2,000,000).
Litigation stopped mining on the Mariposa estate, and left the
property and buildings to idleness and decay. The director of the
mint at Washington says, in his last report : —
" The affairs of the company became embarrassed, principally by
bad management, and a long and vexatious litigation ensued which
had the effect of closing the mines. During this period the machinery
rusted, the buildings rotted, the shafts filled, and the tunnels and
drifts caved, towns were nearly depopulated, and mining camps
abandoned.
"This litigation having reached the highest courts, both State
and Federal, and been disposed of finally in the State Supreme Court,
it is anticipated that operations may soon be resumed."
It is claimed that Fremont realized from this Mariposa property
one million dollars.
MARVELS OF MINING. 483
THE MOTHER LODE.
This Lode, much of which is covered by the Fremont grant, is
regarded as the most remarkable metalHferous vein in the world.
J. Ross Brown, in his report to the United States Government, says
of it : —
'' Others have produced and are producing more, but no other has
been traced so far, has so many peculiar features, has exercised so
much influence on the topography of the country about it, or has
been worked with a profit in so many places. The great orgen-
tiferous lodes of Mexico and South America, the most productive
of precious metal of all known in history, can be followed not more
than six or eight miles ; while the Californian vein is distinctly trace-
able on the surface from Mariposa to the town of Amador, a distance
of more than sixty miles."
*'The chief peculiarities of the mother lode are its great length,
its great thickness, its uniform character, the near proximity of large
companion veins, of which at least one is usually talcose, and the
richness of the talcose veins. In reply to questions about the chief
distinguishing feature of the mother lode, the miners engaged in
working various mines gave very different answers. One said it was
the presence of a belt of green stone on the eastern side. Another
thought it was a black putty gouge. A third spoke first of the occur-
rence of places as smooth as glass on the walls. Another considered
the mother lode to consist of two branches, one the luminated, the
other the bowlder branch. The former is usually on the west side ;
the latter has the most curves. The lode is richest where the two
meet. Another still says the mother lode is a series of branches,
sometimes a dozen in number, covering a width that varies from five
hundred to three thousand feet, with a greenstone porphyry wall on
the east, and dioritic porphyry wall on the west."
The mint director at Washington says of it : —
*' It is, however, within the limits of Amador County that the
mother lode makes its greatest presentation within defined wall
structure and has been worked to the greatest profit. The Zeile,
Keystone, and Plymouth consolidated companies are at present the
most productive, the last named having yielded $600,000 in dividends
during the year 1884 from the operations of their eighty-stamp mill.
The above-mentioned mines have each a depth of one thousand feet
or more, and have many years of reserves developed. The great slate
484 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
belt is found north of the Cosumnes River, in El Dorado County, but
it here ceases to have the distinctive appellation of 'Mother Lode.'"
Sierra has developed into one of the richest quartz regions of the
State. Notably among the reported quartz discoveries are the New
River deposits of Trinity County, which have been, however, but
partially developed. Many of these show high grade ore, and are
found in geological formations which indicate permanency. The
surrounding conditions are excellent, as the country is well watered
and heavily timbered.
*' Prior to the discoveries in San Bernardino County three years
ago, silver mining in California was prosecuted with but little success ;
but since then it has steadily increased in importance. During the
past year the recorded mines have kept up an increased supply of
silver bullion, while many new properties have been located.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
'' In addition to the great wealth of gold which California contin-
ues to pour in the world's coffers, and her vast reserves of silver only
now begmning to yield their wealth, other useful minerals and metals
abound m a variety probably unsurpassed ; and as many of them
have an influence on the production and refining of the precious metals,
a brief mention of them may not be inappropriate."
SOME OF THE RICHEST MINES OF CALIFORNIA.
The Sheep Ranch mine, in Calaveras County, was discovered in
1865, and has been a large-paying mine ever since. It enriched its
locators, who finally sold it for a fabulous price to parties who have
worked it on a larger scale. It pays $18,000 per month.
The Standard mine. Mono County, has been a great producer.
Although the year 1884 was considered dull, the mine turned out
$26'j,yyyA6 in gold, and $36,517.60 in silver. Total, $304,294.76.
This mine was opened in 1877, since which time its production has
reached the enormous sum of ten millioii dollars ($10,000,000).
The Bodie Free Press, under date of Feb. 14, 1885, gives the fol-
lowing statement of the grand total of bullion shipments of the
Bodie district for the year 1884 : —
Standard Consolidated -. ^304,294.76
Eodie Consolidated 617,310.18
Syndicate 155,244.36
New Standard 17,714.76
Bodie Tunnel 2,075.90
Wagner's Tailings, mill 17,600.00
MARVELS OF MINING. 485
Virginia Creek Hydraulic Company j^2 1,300. 00
Scattering 8,630.00
Bodie ore 714.00
Total $1,144,883.96
The Idaho quartz mine, in the famous Nevada County, yielded
^^364,599.85, in 1883, and $561,895.49, in 1884. The dividend.s in the
latter year amounted to $271,250.
The principal mine of the Bloomfield district, Nevada County,
belongs to the North Bloomfield Mining Company, and they report
the product for 1884 $483,187.57.
The Eureka, in Plumas County, yields $35,000 per month, on the
average, and promises more largely to-day than ever.
Three years ago there was discovered in this county one of the
most remarkable mines of California. It was at Eagle Gulch, and
the Gi'ecnville Bttlletin said of it : —
" The recent strike at Eagle Gulch is something so great that a
bare statement of facts would read like the wildest romance. One
of the owners of the mine with a hammer and chisel cut out one solid
lump of gold worth $2,700. When the ledge was struck in the lower
tunnel, a man who was at work there was sent off some little distance
on a message. During his absence his employer took out $10,000.
It is a common thing to find from $200 to $300 in a single pan of
dirt. The ledge is nearly fifty feet wide, all of which is good milling
ore. The extremely rich vein is about three feet wide. This mine
at Eagle Gulch is to-day the greatest mine in the State. To illus-
trate how fortunes are missed and made in mining, it may be stated
that a short time ago a mine operator of great experience went and
examined the property. It was offered to him for $75,000, and he
refused it. Not long afterward that much could be taken out in little
more than a week."
The Sierra Buttes, in Sierra County, has been worked fourteen
years, and the net profits hav^e reached nearly $100,000 annually.
The Plymouth Consolidated, of Amador County, reports as fol-
lows : —
Gold bullion produced by the mines of this company for 1884 $1,033,518.29
Operating expenses . . . . , 331,163.84
Profit 702,354.45
Twelve monthly dividends, of $50,000 each, were paid, amounting to . . 600,000.00
Surplus over operating expenses and dividends 102,354.45
Add surplus on hand Jan. i, 1884 41,559.96
Total surplus $146,914.41
486 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
The mines at Forest Hill, in Placer County, yielded from 1859 ^^
1867, as follows: The Dardanelles, $2,000,000; the Jenny Lind,
$1,100,000; the New Jersey, $850,000; the Independence, $450,000;
the Deidesheimer, $650,000 ; five other mines, $250,000 each ; and
the Alabama, $150,000. These mines are worked still, some of them
continuing the average yield, especially the Dardanelles.
The most expensive placer mining field in Nevada County was
examined by Professor Silliman and M. Laur, a French engineer of
mines, and both agreed as to the vast amount of wealth deposited
therein. M. Laur said that if $12,000,000 were extracted annually
from the region, it would take five hundred and twenty-four years to
exhaust it within a single mile. At the base of Sugar Loaf, there
were taken out eight million dollars ($8,000,000) previous to 1867.
The Grass Valley district, in Nevada County, to which we have
already referred as yielding largely in 1883 and 1884, was even more
prolific in its early history. Professor Silliman reported in March,
1865, that the gold product to that time amounted to tivcitty-tJiree
niillioji dollars ($23,000,000). The Eureka paid $50,000 per month for
several years, and is still a paying mine. The Gold Hill paid $4,000,-
000 in fourteen years ; and the Massachusetts Hill, $3,000,000 in ten
years.
The following extract from the last report of the director of the
mint at Washington shows remarkable production : —
''The shipment of gold from Bodie district. Mono County, amounted
for the year 1884 to over a million dollars, the output of each mine
and locality in and about that district being given below : —
Standard Consolidated ^305,274.03
Bodie Consolidated 617,939.49
Syndicate 171,049.56
New Standard 17,714.76
Bodie Tunnel 2,075.90
Wagner's Tailings, mill 17,600.00
Virginia Creek Hydraulic Company 21,300.00
Scattering 8,630.00
Bodie Ore, dump pile 714.00
Total ;^i, 162,297.74
" The total value of bullion, mostly gold, sent from Bodie district
up to the present time, amounts to about $17,000,000.
'' Following is the record of the two leading mines of the dis-
trict : —
MARVELS OF MINING,
487
Total output of the Standard Consolidated to Dec. 31, 1884.
1877 $784,522.80
1878 1,025,383.35
1879 1,448,835.47
1880- 1,858,763.46
1881 2,131,458.87
1882 1,258,056.80
1883 1,155,181.83
1884 304,294.76
Total $9,966,507.29
Total output of Bodie Consolidated Mine to Dec. 31, 1884.
1878 $1,042,236.80
1879 764,067.12
1880 429,817.80
1881 366,105.14
1882 484,890.48
1883 246,820.10
1884 617,310.18
Total $3,951,247.62
Table showing shares, capital, and aggregate dividends of ten
most valuable mines in California, Jtn. i, 1885, with time last divi-
dend was paid : —
NAME OF MINE.
SHARES.
CAPITAL.
DIVIDEND.
LAST DIVIDEND PAID.
Black Bear, etc
100,000
100,000
100,000
3,100
100,000
40,625
22,500
100,000
45,000
50,000
$3,000,000
10,000,000
10,000,000
310,000
5,000,000
406,200
225,000
10,000,000
4,500,000
5,000,000
$887,000
1,607,500
875,000
3,620,800
950,000
1,741,223
i,375>352
4,450,000
225,000
215,000
Dec. 28, 1884
Dec. 5, 1884
Oct. 6, 1880
Dec. 15, 1884
Dec. 5, 1884
Oct. 10, 1884
Oct. 10, 1884
Mar. 12, 1884
Nov. 5, 1880
Aug. 10, 1882
Bodie Consolidated, etc. . .
Kxcelsior, etc
Idahfi Mining Company . .
Plymouth Consolidated, etc.
Plumas Eureka, etc
Sierra Buttes, etc
Standard Consolidated, etc.
North Bloomfield, etc. . . .
New York Hill Gold, etc. .
NUGGETS.
The term *' nugget " is applied to a mass or lump of gold of unu-
sual size and weight. Nuggets are found more or less in all gold-
fields. The largest ones have been found in the gold-fields of Vic-
488
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
toria, Australia. The so-called Welcome nugget, weighing over 182
troy pounds, was found at Bakery Hill, Ballarat, in 1858. Another —
the '* Blanche Barkley nugget" — weighed 146 pounds, and only six
ounces was rock. The largest California nugget was found at Car-
son Hill, in Calaveras County, and weighed 108 pounds, four pounds of
it being quartz. Speaking of "bars and nuggets," a writer says: —
"The first piece of gold found in California was worth fifty cents,
and the second $5. Since that time one nugget has been found
worth $43,000; two, $21,000; one, $10,000; two, $8,000; one,
$6,500; four, $5,000; twelve, worth from $3,000 to $4,000, and
eighteen, worth from $1,000 to $2,000 have been found and recorded
in the history of the State. In addition to the above, numberless
nuggets worth from $100 to $500 are mentioned in the annals of
California gold mining during the last thirty years. From the date
of the discovery of gold in California to the present time, the yield
has been about $1,200,000,000, therefore it is very easy to see the
small figure that nuggets .cut in the gold yield. Big nuggets are
very fine things to show, but after all it is the fine gold — the dust —
that shows up. Although ten years younger than California, and a
producer of a less precious metal, Nevada has yielded in good solid
silver bars nearly $300,000,000.
The director of the mint at Washington furnishes the following
table, showing the weight and value of the principal California nug-
gets, together with the locality where, and the time when found: —
DATE.
LOCALITY.
WEIGHT.
VALUE AP-
PROXIMATELY.
Calaveras County.
Ounces.
1854
Carson Hill, near Angel's Camp quartz vein, 195 lbs.,
4 lbs, quartz
2,340
^43,534.00
1854
Camp Seco, Stone Cabin Gulch. Frank Russworm .
Mokelumne River. Said to weigh from 20 to 25 lbs. .
Placer County.
93
1,760.00
1864
Michigan Bluffs, two miles distant on the American
226
4,204.00
1876
Polar Star Claim, Dutch Flat, from a white quartz
5,760.00
Sierra County,
1855
I85I
French Ravine
532
426
10,000.00
Prench Ravine
8,000.00
MARVELS OF MINING.
489
1850
i860
1864
1869
1866
i860
1854
1862
1861
1862
1865
1855
1867
1865
1849
1850
1850
1857
1857
1865
1867
Sierra County — Continued.
French Ravine
French Ravine
Smith's Flat
Little Grizzly
Hope Claim
Smith's Flat
Monumental Quartz, Sierra Buttes (W. A. Farrish)
Live Yankee Claim, Forest City, twelve nuggets, from
30 to 170 ounces .
Smith's Flat ,
Oregon Claim, Forest City, nuggets, from 30 to 100
ounces
Minnesota
Butte County.
Willard Claim, west branch of the Feather; weight 54
lbs. before melting, and 49 lbs. after melting . . .
West branch Feather, near Magalia. (Morrison) ,
West branch Feather, near Magalia
Shasta County.
Banghart Mine, Mad Mule Canon, crystalline. (Cooper)
N^evada County.
Remington Hill, estimated to weigh
Remington Hill
Lowell Hill
Siskiyou County.
De Groots, Terry, and Klamath rivers
El Dorado County.
Illinois Cafion, near Georgetown
Georgia Slide, Hudson's Gulch
Oregon Cafion, supposed to be the Fay nugget . . .
Kelsey, or near it; date not stated
Manhattan Creek, near Georgetown
Garden Valley. Found by Samuel Treeworgee . .
Spanish Dry Diggings. Grit Claim, dendritic gold
(Fricot's specimen)
Pilot Ilill. Bowlder of gold quartz
WEIGHT.
VALUE AP-
PROXIMATELY.
Ounces.
263
$4,893.00
93
1,757.00
140
2,605.00
107
2,000.00
94
1,770.00
146
2,716.00
1,596
17,655.00
f 30
I 170
80
1,509.00
t 100
266
5,000.00
186
128
58
131
101.40
426
1,607.00
1,760.00
248.00
3,500.00
2,400.00
1,100.00
2,437.00
1,000.00
1,000.00
1,250.00
4,700.00
525.00
3,500.00
8,000.00
490
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
i860
1854
[849
[849
[850
t853
El Dorado County — Continued.
Spanish Dry Diggings, Pennsylvania Seam, 2^ lbs. .
Spanish Dry Diggings, near the Grit Seam. (Texas &
Jacobs)
Tuolumtie County.
Wood's Creek, below Sonora
Knapp's Ranch, east of Columbia. A slab-shaped
mass, I4"x 9"x 5", which, with other fragments . .
Sullivan's Creek, 28 lbs
Gold Hill, near Columbia
Spring Gulch, near Columbia. (Globular form) . .
Holden's Garden, Sonora. A mass of quartz and gold
Columbia
Ounces.
36
900
VALUE AP-
PROXIMATELY.
^5,000.00
396+
8,500.00
408
7,590.00
360
6,500.00
5,000.00
30,000.00
283
5,265.00
One of the largest and finest gold nuggets ever unearthed in Cali-
fornia has recently been on exhibition in San Francisco. It is about
the size of an ordinary Derby hat, weighs thirty-five pounds, and is
worth about six thousand dollars. Great ** gobs " of gold hang out
of its sides.
ARIZONA.
More than two hundred years ago the Spaniards worked the
mines in what is now the territory of Arizona, and carried away mil-
lions and millions of dollars. Baron Humboldt, and others, say that
*^ masses of virgin silver, weighing from twenty to as high as two hun-
dred and eighty-four pounds " were sent to the Spanish Crown for
tribute. Cozzens, in his "Three years in Arizona, etc.," says: —
'' If the reader is sufficiently curious to visit the old Custom House
at Guaymas, in Sonora, these statements can be substantiated by
reference to the records found there. Among the archives therein
contained is rather a remarkable one, establishing the fact that, in
1683, the king's attorney brought suit to recover from the proprietor
of the Real del Carmen mine, one Don Roderigo Gandera, a mass of
virgin silver, taken by him from his mine, weighing twenty-eight
hundred pounds, which the officer claimed as belonging to the king
because it was a curiosity ; and all curiosities taken from the soil, of
whatever kind or nature, belong to His Most Gracious Majesty."
MARVELS OF MINING. 49 1
This is the largest nugget the world ever recorded. The king
who brought action to recover it named the country in which it was
found Arizuma, which means silver-bearing. From this was derived
its present name.
There is no question about the great wealth of the Arizona mines ;
and the chief reason why they have not been worked more extensively
is because the cruel and barbarous Apaches massacred the parties mak-
ing the attempt. The mines are located in the western and northern
part of the territory, just where the Apaches can conveniently raid
them. As an example, the Patagonia mine was worked by Spaniards
in 1760; in 1820 the Apaches massacred every miner who did not
flee, and the mine was not only abandoned, but forgotten. In 1856
it was rediscovered, a company organized, smelting-houses, reduction
works, dwellings, and storehouses erected, and a marvellously lucra-
tive business inaugurated. But when the company was making an
actual daily profit of from tzvelve to fifteen hundred dollars, the
Apaches stole all the stock of the company, murdered the superin-
tendent and many of the miners, and put a speedy end to further
business in that mine. From that day the mine has not been worked,
and the buildings and machinery have gone to decay. While there is
less peril to miners in that country to-day, it is still true that the
Apaches are a terror to the country, and doubtless will continue to
be until the government effectually conquers or destroys them, for
which we most devoutly pray.
True, the isolation of the country, being without a port of entry,
and more than a thousand miles from the nearest supply-point, at
the time of the last raid of the Apaches on the Patagonia mine, was
a great hindrance to successful mining. A steam-engine for the
mine was drawn by mules from Lavacca, Tex., fourteen hundred
miles ; also a boiler weighing six thousand pounds. Now, of course,
since the Territory has been penetrated by railroads, this isolation is
a thing of the past; but the terrible savages remain ''creation's
blot."
E. J. Farmer says, in his '* Resources of the Rocky Mountains,"
issued in 1883 '• —
"The mineral resources of Arizona, like those of the entire region
of the Rockies, are only just beginning to be known; and yet the
production of the Territory, in gold, silver, copper, and lead, for 1882,
was $\ 1,700,000, giving Arizona the fourth place in the list. As the
Territory is full of mountains, so do the mountains seem to be full of
mineral ; and gold, silver, copper, lecd, coal, and salt have been dis-
492 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
covered. Gold, here, is mostly found in veins of quartz ; sometimes
it is combined w^ith iron and copper pyrites, while from placers in the
beds of some streams, it is collected in a pure state. Silver is found
here in nearly all its combinations ; as carbonates, sulphurets, chlo-
rides, bromides, silver-glance, and as pure metal. The proportion of
rich galena ores, as compared with those of Colorado, is extremely
small, yet of other silver combinations there are an abundance. The
copper deposits of Arizona are probably the finest on the continent,
the Lake Superior region not excepted. Mining may be said to
have recommenced in this portion of New Spain in i860; for the
precious metals have been known to exist here for more than two
hundred years, and were mined at that time by the Spaniards."
From the same authority we learn that the famous Tombstone
district was yielding, when he wrote, j^z^^ Jumdred thousand dollars
($500,000) monthly. There are more than twenty famous mines in
this district, which extends five miles from north to south, and eight
from east to west ; each one capitalized for from two to ten million
dollars.
The output of the Contention Consolidated for 1882 was one mil-
lion eight hundred fourteen tJiousand dollars ($1,814,000).
The output of the Grand Central, for the same time, was one mil-
lion three hundred fifty-eigJit thousand dollars ($1,358,000). And that
of the Tombstone Gold and Silver Mining Company was 07te million
four hundred forty tJiousand dollars ($1,440,000).
The Silver King rewards its owners with a large output, seveji hun-
dred forty-one thousand ($741,000) in 1882. The McCracken lode has
yiQldtdowQV eight hundred thousand dollaj^s ($800,000) ; the Hackberry
and McMorris nearly half a million each.
In Yuma County gold was discovered in placers, in 1862, and one
million five hundred thousand dollars ($1,500,000) were taken out in
three years. The mines of the Castle-Donee district have yielded
more than two million dollars ($2,000,000).
The Vulture mine, in Mariposa County, has yielded more money
than any mine in Arizona Territory — tJiree million dollars ($3,000,-
000).
It is claimed that the copper mines of Arizona are richer than any
other copper mines in the world. The Copper Queen mine had
yielded over two million dollars ($2,000,000) up to Jan. i, 1883.
Arizona is called the ''Copper Queen of the Rockies."
In confirmation of much that has been said about Arizona, the
following table shows shares, capital, aggregate dividends, of five of
MARVELS OF MINING.
493
the most valuable mines in that territory Jan. i.. 1885, with time last
dividend was paid : —
NAME OF MINE.
SHARES.
CAPITAL.
DIVIDENDS.
LAST DIVIDEND PAID.
Grand Central, etc
Silver King, etc
Tombstone Mill, etc
Contention Mining Company
Vizini Consolidated, etc. . . .
100,000
100,000
500,000
250,000
200,000
$10,000,000
10,000,000
12,500,000
12,500,000
5,000,000
$800,000
1,350,000
1,250,000
1,187,500
145,000
Dec, 1882
Dec. 15, 1884
April 12, 1882
Dec. 24, 1884
Nov., 1884
DAKOTA.
While Dakota is known the world over for her great farms, her
mines are no less famous. The rich gulches of Whitewood and
Deadwood creeks became known in 1875, and in two years four
million dollars ($4,000,000) in gold were taken out.
The Homestate produced one million one hundred fourteen thou-
sand five hundird sixty-eight dollars ($1,114,568) in 1882, one million
one Jiundred seventy thousand nine hundred and nineteen dollars
($1,170,919) in 1883, and one million two hundred fifty -two thousand
seven Jmndred sixty five dollars and seventy cents ($1,252,765.70) in
1884; the Father De Smet, th^ee hundred ninety-one thousaiid two
hundred sixty-nine dollars ($391,269), three hundred fifty-five thoti-
sand four hundred twenty-three dollars and sixty-one cents ($355,-
423.61), and four hundred seventy-four thousand five hundred fifty -two
dollars ninety-foitr cents ($474,552.94), in the same years respectively;
and the Deadwood Terra, ^z;^ hundred fifty-one thousand fifty-tivo dol-
lars ($551,052), tivo hundred forty-five thousand six himdred and fifty
dollars ($245,650), and /<?//r hundred sixty-six thousand five himdred
thirty-tivo dollars and seventy-eight cents ($466,532.78).
The production of gold in the Black Hills of Dakota from 1876 to
Aug. I, 1882, amounted to twenty-two million dollars {$22,000,000) )
and the average annual yield since has been about five million dollars
($5,000,000).
The Highland mine produced five hundred eleven thousand seven
hundred forty dollars atid thirty -two cents ($511,740.32) in 1884.
The director of the mint at Washington estimated the gold and
silver yield of Dakota in 1884 at three inillion four hundred and fifty
thousand dollars ($3,450,000).
494 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
IDAHO.
The Vishnu and Elmore mines have yielded more than two
million dollars ;$2, 000,000).
At Gold H'll a single mill has run twelve years and produced tzvo
million six h?mdred fifty thousand dollars ($2,650,000).
The placers in Stanley Basin, Custer County, were discovered in
1862, and yielded, in ten years. Jive hundred thousand dolla7^s. Since
then a few men only have worked them, taking out o?ie hundred
thousand more. In the early days of the mine, one man, with
a '' rocker," took out nine Jiundred dollars in one day. Loon Creek
produced six hundred thousand dollars in three years
A twenty-stamp, dry-crushing mill was erected in Yankee Fork
District in 1880, since which time it has turned out three million dol-
lars ($3,000,000).
Custer County has added one million three hundred fifty thousand
dollars (^1,350,000) to the wealth of the world in gold from its placers,
and from its quartz mines six millio7i eight hundred thousand dollars
($6,800,000).
Semhi County, since 1867, has yielded eight million seven hundred
thousand dollars ($8,700,000). Its yield in 1885 was six Jiundred
thousand dollars, and, with more capital and proper reduction ma-
chinery, that amount might have been easily trebled.
The Poorman mine, in Ouzhee County, received in return jiitiety
thousand dollars ($90,000) for its first shipment of one hundred tons
of ore. Soon after, fifteen tons, shipped to Newark, N. J., yielded
seventy five thousand dollars ($75,000). Its yield produced some of
the richest specimens of ruby and native silver ever mined. A speci-
men of this ruby, about two feet square and sixty per cent pure
silver, received a special gold medal at the Paris Exposition.
The Morning Star has produced one million dollai's) ($1,000,000),
one lot of one hundred tons yielding one thousand dollars per ton.
The Elmore, with a twenty-stamp mill, yielded six htindred thou-
sand dollars ($600,000) in a thirty days' run.
E. J. Farmer shows the great wealth of Idaho's mines by the
following table : —
Oro Fino Mine has produced ^2,756,128
Old Elmore Mine " 2,000,000
Golden Chariot and Minnesota " 3,000,000
Mahogany Mine " 1,200,000
Poorman Mine » " 4,000,000
MARVELS OF MINING.
495
Morning Star Mine has produced
Monarch Mine "
Buffalo Mine "
Ada Elmore Mine "
Confederate Star Mine . "
Vishnu Mine "
Wild West Mine
Red Warrior, Elk Creek, Feathery River, and Bear Creek Placers "
Custer, Dickens, Montana, etc "
Mt. Estes Mines . . **
Ramshorn "
,000,000
,100,000
,000,000
,200,000
350,000
850,000
300,000
,000,000
,250,000
,000,000
600,000
And he adds: ''The mines whose product is from $10,000 to
$^o,OQO per annum can be counted by scores, many of which will
doubtless in time prove bonanzas. Sufficient development has been
made to demonstrate the fact that Idaho has rich veins of the
precious metals, and that when her resources shall become known to
the world, she will have a brilliant future. There are yet thousands
of square miles of her metal-ribbed mountains that have never been
trodden by a white man's foot, and where prospecting will be carried
on for years to come, with success."
The following table shows the estimated production of the precious
metals in Idaho since first discovery : —
Year. Amount Produced.
1862 ^5,000,000.00
1863 7,448,400.91
1864 9,019,704.30
1865 12,914,364.25
1866 10,001,850.44
1867 7,388,064.31
1868 3,030,213.56
1869 1,613,453.68
1870 2,239,190.61
187I 2,219,937.94
1872 2,675,192.00
1873 3,653>6o5.i5
Year. Amount Produced.
1874 ^3,100,447.69
1875 1,983,720.27
1876 2,267,013.36
1877 3.474>787-69
1878 2,657,216.91
1879 2,553,634.58
1880 1,634,637.19
1881 4,915,100.00
1882 5,500,000.00
1833 5,000,000.00
1884 (estimated) .... 6,500,000.00
Total production .
^106,790,530.14
Here is a Territory, so isolated and subject to the depredations of
savage tribes, until within five or six years, as to interfere with min-
ing and all other industries, adding more than a Jmndrcd Diillion
dollars to the world's wealth.
From the Montana mine four men took out eighty thousand dol-
lars ($80,000) in six months.
The Mayflower produced two Jmndrcd thousand dollars ($200,000)
in 1 88 1, -a.wd five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) in 1882. It
40 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
was sold to J. V. Farwell at the beginning of 1882 for tJwee Jnmdred
and seventy-five thousand dollar's (^375,000).
The Idahoan "^rodwc^d three hundred thousand do llaj^s ($300,000)
in 1882, and the Jay Gould two hundred thousand dollar's ($200,000).
The Ramshorn was discovered in 1877, since which time it has
yielded tzuo imllion dollars ($2,000,000). In 1882 its yield was over
three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000).
From the West Fork mine one man took out fifty thousand dollars
in twenty days.
The Bullion mine yielded one hundred twenty five thousand \x\. 1883 ;
from Nov. i to Dec. 10 of that year the yield was seventy-two thou-
sand nine hundred sixty dollars ($72,960) ; this in forty days. The
whole Bullion district yielded seven hundred thousand dollars ($700,-
000) in 1882, and one million dollars in 1883.
The stock capital of the Idahoan mines is ten million dollars.
The Minnie Moore was sold for one million dollars.
One mine in Warm Spring Creek yields tJiree hundr^ed thousand
dollars ($300,000) annually. Three others yielded one million two
hundred thousand dollars ($1,200,000) in a single season.
MONTANA.
Although Montana is so remote and isolated, the Territory ranks
next to the State of California in the production of gold. The dis-
covery of rich placer mines in 1862 caused a rush to that country,
and within three years from the time miners were fairly settled
down to work. Alder Gulch alone, thirteen miles long, yielded sixty
million dollars ($60,000,000).
Since gold mining commenced in Montana, the Territory has
produced, including copper and lead, two hundred million dollars
($200,000,000).
The gold output for 1884 amounted to $2,170,150.00. The silver
output for 1884 amounted to $8,138,350.00; total, $10,308,500.00.
Four large companies to prosecute mining were organized in
Lewis and Clarke County in 1884, and others have been added from
month to month since : the Bald Mountain Mining Company, with
capital of two million five htmdred thousand dollars ($2,500,000) ;
the Clany Creek Mining Company, with capital of two million five
hundred thousand dollars ($2,500,000) ; the Crown Point Mining
Company, with capital of two million five hundr^ed thousand dollars
MARVELS OF MINING. 497
($2,500,000) ; and the National Mining Company, with capital of
five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000).
The Hecla Company produced six hundred ninety-two thousand
eight hundred twenty-three dollars and nine cents ($692,823.09) in
gold and silver, in 1884; and, in addition, nearly five million pounds
of lead, and more than a third of a million pounds of copper.
The Penobscot has produced one and a half million dollar's since
it was opened.
The Drum Lummon carries a vein of gold and silver ninety feet
wide, the ore averaging fifty dollars per ton. In 1883 this mine was
sold to an English company for one million six hundird thirty thou-
sand dollars ($1,630,000). Two years ago it was claimed that this
mine had $9,000,000 in sight.
The output of the Whitelash Union has amounted to about four
million dollars to this date.
Last Chance Gulch, with its tributaries, has yielded sixteen million
dollars {$ 1 6,000,000) .
The Butte City region produces about six million dollars per
annum, including copper. The Alice is found here, which paid
dividends amounting to five lumdred thousand dollars in five years.
In 1884 the whole property of the company yielded one million two
hujidred thousand dollar's ($1,200,000).
The Lexington is a high-grade silver mine, and was sold to a
French company in 1881 for one million five himdred thousand dollars.
In 1884 its output was one million two hundred eighty-7iine thousand
six Jiundred eighty-five dollars and tJiirty-four cents ($1,289,685.34).
Its monthly yield when the Washington mint director reported last
was nearly one hundred thousand dollars.
The Algonquin yields one hundred and fifty thousand dollars per
annum.
The Alta and the Comet mines together produced three Jnuidred
forty-tJiree thousand four Jiundred forty-eight dollars ($343,448) in a
single year, over and above all expenses.
The mines of the Helena Company yielded one million one Jiundred
tJiousand dollars ($i,ioo,ooo) in 1884.
The Alice has produced $100,000 per month ; the Gloster, $50,000
per month; the Cable has yielded $1,000,000. and has $1,500,000 in
sight.
The Elkhorn produced in ten months, ending Dec. 31, 1884,
one Jiundred seventy tJiousand six Jiundred ninety-six dollars.
The Valdemere, which began work in 1883, \)^\^ five Jiundred fifty
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
MARVELS OF MINING. 499
thousand dollars in dividends in eighteen months, and has continued
to pay at this rate.
The Moulton is capitalized at two million dollars (^2,000,000), and
yielded, in 1883, tJirce hundred seventy-six thousand six hundred
eighty-four dollar's and twenty cents ($376,684.20) ; and in 1884 its
output was over seven Jiundred tJiousand dollars.
The Bell mine yielded four Jiundred fifty thousand dollars in
1884.
The illustration of Red Mountain exhibits one of the most impor-
tant undeveloped mining regions of the United States. A writer
says : —
''This mineral field covers an area of about twelve miles square,
and contains vast deposits of gold, silver, copper, lead, and tin. The
district was discovered about twenty years ago, and there are now
nearly three hundred mineral locations, and it may be truthfully said
that it is the most important undeveloped mineral field in Montana,
or even in the United States."
Of course the scenery is surpassingly grand. The editor of the
Montaiia Stock and Mining yournal says : —
" In point of scenic beauty. Red Mountain and its surroundings
probably excel that of any camp in Montana. The beautiful Beaver
Creek leaping from its dizzy height, through its narrow, rocky defile,
to a commingling with the waters of the Ten-mile, at the very foot
of Red Mountain, presents a study worthy of the pencil of the great-
est artist the world can produce. Switzerland, under treatment of
the most enthusiastic writer, cannot furnish a more beautiful picture,
and the entire canon of the Ten-mile, from the Hot Springs, near
Helena, to the source of the stream at Red Mountain, is one grand
kaleidoscope of ever-changing grandeur, baffling the power of pen to
describe. A good and natural wagon road leads from Helena to the
mines, through the canon, unfolding its great beauties at each turn,
in an atmosphere laden with the perfume of countless thousands of
blossoming flowers, as one might turn the pages of an intensely inter-
esting book inspired by some favorite author,"
Immense deposits of coal, iron, copper, and lead are found in the
Territory. Professor Raymond says: —
"The almost uniform experience of working Montana copper veins
has been to demonstrate that the veins improve in width and rich-
ness the deeper the shafts are sunk. At a depth of from eighty to
one hundred feet, several of them show ore that will average fifty per
cent copper, though near the surface the same openings yielded ore
500 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
carrying but twenty-five to thirty-three per cent. The lodes of cop-
per are abundant, and the veins from four to one hundred feet in
width."
E. J. Farmer says: "Precious stones, as agates, garnets, rubies,
amethyst, and jasper, are found in many localities. A ledge of ame-
thyst eighteen inches wide has recently been discovered on Running
Wolf Creek, and a mountain of jasper, near Belmont Park. Ledges
of fine white marble and sandstone of superior quality have been
found in Madison County."
Montana claims to have the four greatest mines in the world, —
the Anaconda, Bluebird, Granite Mountain, and Drum Lummon.
Their combined product for 1886 was nearly $9,000,000.
NEVADA.
The fame of Nevada is world-wide on account of the Comstock
lode, which once yielded almost fabulous wealth.
The Eureka Mining Company produced, in 1884, four hundred
eighty-four thousand four hnndrcd twenty dollars and ninety four
cents ($484,420.94).
The Manhattan Silver Mining Company have operated their mill
for ten months during the year, producing from their mines 5,204
tons of bullion, averaging $231.50 per ton, which was shipped to
London, and yielded $1,128,909.91. The mines of this company
have been worked continuously for the past twenty years, and are
estimated to have produced over $20,000,000.
The output of the Yellow Jacket mine, in 1884, was : gold, $294,-
798.94; silver, $489,853.66; total, seven Jiundred fourteen thousand
six hundred fifty-two dollars and sixty cents ($714,652.60).
COMSTOCK LODE,
Showing shares, capital, aggregate dividends, and when last divi-
dend was paid. The reader will see that the dividends ceased, with
most of them, several years ago : —
MARVELS OF MINING.
501
NAME OF MINE.
SHARES.
CAPITAL.
DIVIDENDS.
LAST DIVIDEND.
Belcher Silver Mining Co. . .
Chollar Mining Co
Confidence Mining Co
Crown and Point, etc
Gould & Curry, etc
Hale & Norcross, etc
Kentuck Mining Co
Ophir Mining Co
Savage Gold and Silver, etc. .
Sierra Nevada, etc
Succor Mill, etc
Yellow Jacket, etc
104,000
I I 2,000
24,960
100,000
108,000
I I 2,000
30,000
100,800
112,000
100,000
68,400
I 20,000
^10,400,000
11,200,000
2,496,000
10,000,000
10,800,000
11,200,000
3,000,000
10,000,800
11,200,000
10.000,000
6,840,000
I 2,000,000
^15,397,200
3,080,000
78,000
11,688,000
3,825,800
1,598,000
1,300,000
1,596,400
4,560,000
102,500
22,800
2,184,000
April 10, 1876
Feb. 10, 1872
May I, 1865
Jan. 12, 1875
Oct. 20, 1870
April 10, 1 87 1
Aug. 20, 1884
Jan. 17, 1880
June II, 1869
Jan. 16, 1 87 1
Oct. 16, 1 87 1
Aug. 10, 1 87 1
Total dividends, ^45,432,700.
The whole output of the above mines was nearly double the divi-
dends, the expenses amounting to about forty millions. The forty-
five million four hundred tJiirty-tivo tJwusand seven Jinndred dollars
($45,432,700) went into the pockets of stockholders as dividends.
From a report of the Mechanics' Institute of San Francisco, in
1867, we extract the following upon the yield of bullion by the Com-
stock lode : —
"The annual product for the last five years has been in round
numbers as follows : —
1862 $4,000,000
1863 12,000,000
1864 16,000,000
1865 15,000,000
1866 16,000,000
Total product in five years $63,000,000
"The total annual production of silver in the world in 1854 is
stated by Professor Whitney at $47,443,200. The bullion obtained
from the Comstock lode in 1866 is, therefore, more than one-third
greater in value than all the silver product of the world in 1854.
Mexico, in its most flourishing days, from 1795 to 18 10, produced an
annual average of $24,000,000 from several thousand mines. After
1 8 10, when the revolution took place, the yield of the mines fell in
some years to as low a figure as $4,500,000, but the average from 18 10
502
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
to 1825 shows ^10,000,000. At the present time the entire product
of Mexico does not exceed that of the Comstock lode.
''The celebrated mines of Potosi averaged about $4,000,000 per
annum for three hundred years; those of the Veta Madre (mother
vein) of Guanajuato about $3,000,000 for an equal period ; and the
mines of the Real del Monte Company, on the Biscanya vein in
Mexico, over $400,000 for the last one hundred and ten years, or a
total of $44,000,000, a less amount than has been obtained from the
Comstock lode in the last three years."
The dividends of ten mines on Comstock lode for the second quar-
ter of 1867 were as follows : —
COMPANY.
APKIL.
MA\'.
JUNE.
TOTAL.
Savage
Hale & Norcross
Imperial
Yellow Jacket
Chollar Potosi
$80,000
50,000
60,000
48,000
5,000
$120,000
50,000
60,000
60,000
70,000
40,000
48,000
5,000
7,000
$160,000
50,000
40,000
90,000
70,000
60,000
5,000
$360,000
I 50,000
I 60,000
I 50,000
140,000
100,000
96,000
15,000
7,200
Crown Point
Gold Hill, etc
Empire Mill, etc
Gould & Curry
Total
*
...
...
$1,178,200
The production of nine mines of Nevada to March, 1882, were as
follows : —
Belcher $15,397,000
California Gold and Silver Mining Company 31,510,000
Consolidated Virginia, etc 42,930,000
Crown Point, etc 11,588,000
Eureka Consolidated, etc 4,705,000
Gould & Curry 3,826,000
Northern Bell, etc 2,162,500
Richmond Consolidated, etc 3,742,550
Savage 7,460,000
Total $123,321,050
A company proposes to dredge the Carson River in Nevada for
quicksilver and amalgam. Eighteen miles of river bed have been
selected. It is estimated that ten per cent of the bullion product of
MARVELS OF MINING.
503
the Comstock mines has flowed as taiUngs into the Carson River, and
that at least $40,000,000 will be recovered.
Production of Shorey County, in which the Comstock lode is
situated, in 1866
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
^816,430.43
971,643.46
1,061,577.65
1,052,759-89
1,145,293.41
1,244,297.54
1,198,741.56
August $1,420,902.35
September 1,169,391.46
October 1,409,220.00
November 1,327,985.00
December 1,348,828.80
Total
;i4,i67,o7i.55
In United States currency this represents a value of $18,072,934
Production of Shorey County first six months of 1867 : —
January $1,330,832.80
February 1,238,811.63
March 979,786.78
Total
April $1,567,427.60
May 1,784,724.25
June 1,594,794.22
• • $8,501,377.28
July 1,613,559.75
Total $10,114,937.03
NEW MEXICO.
Little attention, comparatively, had been given to mining in the
Territory of New Mexico. Other fields have been more inviting to
miners than this; and yet there is no question that gold-seekers in
the future will find this to be a high paying locality, if not a bonanza.
G. S. Haskell, Esq., was the commissioner of New Mexico to the
Denver Exposition, and from his report of the Territory's display
there we extract the following : —
"The Lake Valley district made a showing which far surpassed
anything else in the building in the way of rich ores coming from
large bodies. The verdict was universal and unequivocal. They
were inclosed in three glass cases. In one was a piece of horn silver
weighing 640 pounds valued at $7,240. A ton of this ore is worth
$22,625.69. Eight men in eight hours took out ^130,000 worth of it.
One brick of 241 pounds, value $2,169.14, 990 fine, was shown, which
was run from 241 pounds of the ore. This ore is all from the mines
of the Sierra Grande company. The output at present is at the rate
of about $5,000,000 per annum.
'' Percha district, where the recent new discovery was made, was
represented by one piece of ore weighing 150 pounds, value $1,800,
504
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
laken from the Solitaire claim, bonded by H. A. W. Tabor for $ioo,-
ooo. It is a sulphide of silver and native silver, running sixty-nine per
cent in the pure metal. This is probably the largest piece of sulphide
of silver ever discovered. A smaller piece of equal richness was exhib-
ited, in which the grass roots were seen.
*' The Organ district was represented by about thirty mines, of
which we can mention only a few. Copper Duke, eight feet wide,
discovered in September, nine feet of development, runs forty to sixty
per cent in copper and as high as $150,000 gold. This was one of
the most remarkable free gold specimens shown."
LAKE VALLEY SMELTING WORKS.
From Ritch's " Illustrated New Mexico " ^e extract the follow-
ing : —
"There is, however, one young giant among the mining camps
which has so wonderfully and so recently come into existence, and
the fact with reference to which, read so much like a chapter from
the ' Arabian Night's Entertainments,' that we here transfer an extract
from a paper prepared by an able pen, and in which statement the
writer hereof, who has personally visited and examined the camp in
question, is prepared to verify.
"'There are at Daly (now Lake Valley) not less than 7,000 tons
of ore on the dumps, running from $100 to $20,000 to the ton; and
MARVELS OF MINING. 505
in the mines, already uncovered and exposed to view, there are cer-
tainly not less than 20,000 tons more of the same kind and richer
ore. We believe we saw, in the two hours it took us to view the
mines, not less than ^15,000,000 worth of ore. That running from
$200 to ^300 to the ton is classed as low grade in this camp. The
pay begins at the grass roots and even in places at the croppings
above the ground, and continues to a depth already reached, of fifty
feet, and along the hillside for a distance of probably 2,000 feet. The
deepest shaft we descended was not over fifty feet, and the ore body
was still pitching downward. Huge caverns have been excavated
beneath the grass, with only a thin roof of limestone or porphyry,
from one to six or eight feet thick supported on timbers, which gives
the place a wild, weird appearance, with its huge mountains of silver
ore rolled one upon another by Nature in her throes with some pri-
meval volcano, and prepares one for the appearance, in some dark
corner, of the genius who presides over Nature's treasures. Instinct-
ively one raises his candle to get a better view of the magic chambers.
Here the rock is black, and looks like iron slag from some huge forge ;
there it has a reddish cast, as though the internal fires to which it
owes its origin had not yet cooled off ; yonder the ore loses its char-
acteristics as a rock formation and resembles a huge mass of soft
quicksilver amalgam, both to the touch and to the eye ; in another
spot it hangs in beautiful, glistening, soft chloride crystals which feel
damp in the hand, and when compressed yield to the pressure and
assume the shape of the closed palm, like dough. The latter forma-
tion is more readily smelted than any ore we ever saw before, the
flame of the candle sending the virgin silver dripping down the wall
like shot. We had heard and doubted this story and were perfectly
well aware of the fact that, according to the chemistry, it requires
1,873 degrees Fahrenheit to fuse silver; yet we are now living wit-
nesses to the fact that the flame of the candle held against the pro-
jecting crystals of chloride of silver in these mines, unaided by the
blow-pipe, is sufficient to fuse them in half a minute. These chlo-
rides run about $27,000 to the ton ; and we certainly saw of them and
horn silver (equally as rich) a hundred tons. The chamber containing
these crystals is called the Bridal Chamber ; and it is here that Gov-
ernor Safford, of Arizona, offered to give $50,000 to be allowed to
carry off and keep all the ore that he might by his own individual
labor extract in ten hours. There is scarcely any waste rock. There
are five piles of ore to one of waste ; and it is with difficulty that rock
is obtained for building the dumps to the height of a wagon without
506 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
using ore for the purpose.' " But for our reliable authority, the fore-
going might seem a tale of fiction.
American occupation of New Mexico took place in 1846, from
which time, according to the report of the director of the Unitec
States mint, to Jan. i, 1882, the output of the Territory, in gold and
silver, amounted to tJiirtccn inillion nine J umdrcd and seventy -two tJion-
sand dollars (^13,972,000). This does not include, of course, the dis-
coveries since January, 1882, which embrace the remarkable disclosures
of Lake Valley and other localities. The amount would be nearly
doubled were the whole output to the present date included.
The Sierra Grand Mining Company paid one million dollars in
dividends to the stockholders in 1883 and 1884.
The Merritt mine yielded about one thoiisand dollars (^1,000) per
day the last part of 1884.
Of the Kohinoor of Sierra Apache, Mr. Ritch says : —
** There are at least two thousand tons of ore upon the dumps of
these properties, all having been extracted from the drifts, cuts, and
winzes (no stoping being done), and its estimated value, made from
close samples and tests, is far in excess of the original purchase
money, which is popularly supposed to have been $500,000. Num-
bers of leading mining experts have recently examined these proper-
ties, and it is stated that none of them have estimated the ore
reserve to be seen at less than $5,000,000."
The output of Seventy-Six in twelve years has been one inillion
two Jiundred sixty thousand dollars ($1,260,000).
UTAH.
Although Utah is called *' the Iron Queen of the Rockies " on
account of its immense beds of iron ore, it ranks fifth among the
States and Territories in the production of gold and silver.
The Eureka Hill Company's output in 1884 was seven hundred
thousand dollars ($700,000), in round numbers.
The following companies paid dividends in 1884, as follows: —
Company. No. of Dividend. Amount.
Horn Silver 4 $1,200,000
Ontario , 12 900,000
Eureka Hill 6 120,000
Honerine I 12,50c
Total $2,232,500
MARVELS OF MINING. 507
The Horn Silver is capitalized at ten viillion dollars ($10,000,000).
The following table shows the marvellous product from Feb. 17,
1879: to Jan. I, 1885, — less than six years: —
107,770,587 pounds lead, sold in Chicago for $4,580,778.26
6,148,906 ounces silver, sold in New York for 6,943,858.41
11,678^ ounces silver, sold in I>ondon for 12,654.12
2,585 ounces silver lost by railroad company, at $1.12 2,S9i.20
3,264,341 pounds base bullion, «old in Utah for 244,399.93
12,301,963 pounds ore, sold to other smelters for 194,123.66
Total gross yield of mine to the company 311,978,705.58
The Flagstaff yielded, from 1871 to 1879, over _/? zr million dol-
lars ($5,000,000), when the vein appeared to be exhausted. The
company has recently been reorganized, with the "confident expecta-
tion that this lode will enter on a second producing stage from end
to end."
In seven years, from Feb. i, 1877, the Ontario Silver Mining
Company realized tJiirteen viillion five hundred thirty-Jiine thousand
nine hundred eigJity-one dollars and sixty-nine cents ($13,539,981.69).
More than six million dollars of it were profit. The mine is owned
by a company in San Francisco, with capital stock of fifteen million
dollars ($15,000,000).
The Antelope and Prince of Wales have yielded over one million
dollars ($1,000,000;.
It is estimated that the so-called American Fork district yielded,
from 1874 to 1884, "500,000 tons of ore, equal to 100,000 tons of
bullion, yielding $8,800,000 in silver, $1,500,000 in gold, and $5,000,-
000 in lead ; amounting in all to $15,300,000."
The Eureka Hill mine yields $33,000 per month.
The Tecumseh, Stormy King, California, Maggie, and Silver Flat
mines are worked by the Christy Company, with a capital of six
million dollars ($6,000,000). Fifty thousand tons of ore yielded
one million three Jiundred tJiousand dollars ($1,300,000).
The Silver Reef \)rod\i(:Qd four mil lio?i dollars ($4,000,000) in five
years.
Mining commenced in Utah in 1870, since which time the Terri-
tor}' has added over eighty million dollars ($80,000,000) to the wealth
of the nation.
Professor Newberry says of the iron ore deposits of Utah : —
"The deposits of iron ore near Iron City and Iron Springs, in
Southwestern Utah, are probably not excelled in intrinsic value by
any in the world. The ore is magnetic and hematite, and occurs in
5o8
MARVELS OF THE AEIV IVEST.
a belt fifteen or twenty miles long, and three or four miles wide^
along which there are frequent outcrops, each of which shows a
length and breadth of several hundred feet of compact, massive ore
of the richest quality. There are certainly no other such deposits of
iron ore west of the Mississippi, and should it be found practicable
to use Utah coal for the manufacture of pig and bar iron, and steel,
from these ore beds, it would be difficult to overestimate the influ-
ence they would have on the industries of the Pacific coast."
Of the twenty thousand square miles of coal fields in the Territory^
the Professor says : —
''Within fifteen miles of the iron ore beds, and separated from
them by a nearly level plain, are deposits of coal which, I believe,
can be successfully used for smelting iron, and which are certainly
capable of furnishing a fuel that will perform all the other duties of
coal, and that in inexhaustible quantities. These coal beds are con-
nected with the coal fields of Eastern Utah, but it is only here that
they push through the mountains into the * railroad valleys,' which
lie between the Wasatch and the Sierra Nevada. Several beds of
coal here crop out on top of Cedar Mountain — beds which vary from
five to eighteen feet in thickness. The coal is of cretaceous age, and
equal in quality to any of the Western coals. It makes a fairly good
coke, apparently as good as that manufactured at Trinidad, Colorado,,
and so extensively used for metallurgical purposes in that State. It
is fully equal to the coals of Central and Northern Utah ; hence it
will probably furnish a fuel adapted for smelting and manufacturing
iron."
Table showing shares, capital, and aggregate dividends of five of
the most valuable mines of Utah, Jan. i, 1885, with time last dividend
was paid : —
NAME OF MINE.
SHARES.
CAPITAL.
DIVIDENDS.
LAST DIVIDEND.
Ontario Mining Company
Horn Silver, etc
I 50,000
1,400
200,000
600,000
60,000
$15,000,000
400,000
200,000
. . .
6,000,000
$26,050,000
4,000,000
155,000
I 50,000
90,000
Dec. 31, 1884
Nov. 15, 1884
Nov. I, 1881
Oct. 25, 1883
Feb. 9, 1883
Crescent Mining Company
Christy Mining Company
MARVELS OF MINING. 509
* WYOMING.
E. J. Farmer says of the '' wonderful crystallizations " of this
Territory : —
** At Rawlins, red oxide iron ore is pulverized for paint ; while at
Cheyenne, there are carriage and wagon shops, as well as manufac-
tories of jewelry from the precious stones which are found here in
many localities. The Territory is a rich field for scientists, having
wonderful petrifications, fossils, and rare crystallizations. The agates,
opals, topaz, jasper, and chalcedony from Sweetwater County are
exceedingly beautiful. The most magnificent crystalhzation at the
Denver Exposition, in 1882, was a portion of a fossil tree from Uintah
County. The bark seemed to have been agatized first, and after the
softer parts of the wood had decayed, crystals formed on the inner
surface for a depth of two inches, leaving a hollow tube eight inches
in diameter and fifteen inches in length. These crystals sparkled
like diamonds, and were the admiration of all beholders."
The gold and silver mining of Wyoming is of little account com-
pared with that of Colorado, California, or Utah ; and yet it is carried
on profitably in some portions of the Territory, and promises to
become an important factor in the future development of the country.
Extensive mines of copper, as well as of coal, have been opened in
the Territory, promising to add largely to its wealth in the near
future. The editor of the Cheyenne Leader- says of the Village Belle
copper mine : —
*' It is astonishing to see the large amount of native copper found
in this mine. I picked up a number of specimens containing globules
of pure copper, and last evening the miners brought to the store a
bag full of specimens containing pure copper in large quantities, each
globule varying in size from a pin-head to a buck-shot. The men
had just gotten down to a pure copper streak late in the afternoon.
Everybody in the camp and out of the camp is talking of the Village
Belle, and if the claim were a veritable belle of the village, she would
be flattered beyond measure by the praise bestowed upon her.
" Several openings have been made in the hill at different points, in
all of which good copper ore is exposed, which leads to the conclusion
that the whole hill is an immense bed of copper. The first vein or
ore body struck was over twelve feet in sight. The ore is a varie-
gated dark brown and green silicate, and runs from thirty-three and
one-third to fifty per cent copper. The openings before reaching
5IO MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
the ledge are made through a deposit of red hematite iron. This
magnificent property cannot be equalled in any copper camp."
And this is only one copper mine of many recently discovered !
Mr. Farmer says of the Wyoming coal fields : —
" They occupy a belt fifty to one hundred miles wide across the
southern portion of the Territory, and are found in the region of the
Big Horn and Powder rivers, east of the Wind River, and both east
and west of the Laramie range. At Cooper Lake, in the Laramie
Plains, a vein has been discovered which is fifteen feet thick, and
one at Carbon ten feet. The veins vary in thickness from four to
forty feet ; while at Carter Station, on the Union Pacific Railway, in
Uintah County, these coal seams are estimated to measure four hun-
dred feet in thickness, with sandstone strata between them."
His description of the remarkable soda deposits in the Territory
will be read with surprise as well as profit, as follows : —
*' The soda deposits of Wyoming are certainly the most remarkable
in the world. Twelve miles southwest of Laramie City there are a
number of lakelets of solidified soda. The largest of these covers an
area of fifty-six acres, and the deposits vary from ten to fifteen feet
in thickness in the deeper portions. From these lakelets a cube of
two hundred cubic feet, of solid crystalline sulphate of soda, was
exhibited at the Centennial Exposition, which gave the following
analysis : ' Soda, 19.4 per cent ; sulphuric acid, 24.8 per cent, equal
to 44.2 per cent of sulphate of soda; water of crystallization, 55.8
per cent.' Colonel Downey, of Wyoming, thus describes these lake-
lets : * The deposit whence the sample mentioned was taken covers
an area of more than one hundred acres ; being a solid bed of crys-
tallized sulphate of soda nine feet thick. The deposit is supplied
from the bottom by springs, whose water holds the salts in solution.
The water, rising to the surface, rapidly evaporates ; and the salts
with which it is impregnated readily crystallize in the form men-
tioned. Upon removing any of the material, the water, rising from
the bottom, fills the excavation made ; and the salts, crystallizing,
replace in a few days the material removed. Hence the deposit is
practically inexhaustible ; and it now contains about fifty million cubic
feet of chemically pure crystallized sulphate of soda, ready to be
utilized.' Near Independence Rock, seventy-five miles north of Raw-
lins, in the valley of the Sweetwater, are deposits of bi-carbonate of
soda. Here are about one hundred lakelets, covering an area, of
three hundred acres, making a deposit one mile in length, by half a
mile in breadth. Part of these are solid soda, and part are filled with
MARVELS OF MINING. 51 1
strong alkaline water. In one of these lakelets of solidified soda,
borings have been made to the depth of forty feet without passing
beyond the soda formation. When we consider that the consump-
tion of soda in the United States amounts to two hundred fifty mil-
lions of pounds per annum, — all of which is imported at a cost of
^47 per ton, with 20 per cent ad valorem duty, making the cost
$56.40 per ton, — it would seem as though Wyoming furnished a
wonderful opportunity for both capital and enterprise in the soda
business. At Rich Creek, near the Union Pacific Railway, there is
reported to be a deposit of sulphate of magnesia, in nearly a pure
state, covering one hundred acres to the depth of several inches.
Gypsum, of fine quality, is found in many localities ; notably in the
Wind River Valley, on Horseshoe Creek, and near Red Buttes.
Kaolin, or porcelain clay, has been discovered in Albany county ;
and mica at both Diamond Peak and in the Laramie Mountains,
thirty miles northwest of Fort Laramie. Sandstone, marble, lime-
stone, and clay for brick, are abundant."
Another writes : " Wonderful stories are told of the natural wealth
of Wyoming Territory. There is said to be a mountain of solid hema-
tite iron in the heart of the Territory, with six hundred feet of it
above ground, more than a mile wide, and over two miles in length ;
a bed of lignite coal big enough to light the world for centuries ;
eight lakes of solid soda, one of them over six hundred acres in extent
and not less than thirty feet in depth ; and a petroleum basin which
contains more oil than Pennsylvania and West Virginia combined,
from which in places the oil is oozing in natural wells at the rate of
two barrels a day." Also, ''an extensive deposit of rubidium, a rare
metal worth $5000 a pound, has been discovered near Rock Creek,
in this Territory."
OREGON AND WASHINGTON.
The settlement of this portion of the New Northwest commenced
so much earlier than that of the States and Territories considered,
that, strictly speaking, they might not be embraced in the New West.
But geographically they belong here ; and, also, their claim to be
considered in this connection cannot be denied, because of gold and
silver mining within their domains.
The director of the United States mint gives the product of Oregon
in 1883 and 1884 as follows : —
512
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
1883.
1884.
GOLD.
SILVER.
TOTALS.
GOLD.
SILVER.
TOTALS.
Baker . .
^190,000
^5,000
$195,000
$160,000
$2,500
$162,500
Benton . .
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
Coos . . .
5,000
5,000
20,000
20,000
Curry. . .
20,000
200
20,000
20,000
200
20,000
Grant . .
240,000
25,000
265,000
200,000
15,000
215,000
Jackson .
135,000
2,000
137,000
100,000
1,000
101,000
Josephine
175,000
2,000
177,000
110,000
1,000
111,000
Union . .
60,000
800
60,800
45,000
300
45.300
Totals . .
^830,000
^35,000
$865,000
$660,000
$20,000
$680,000
He estimates the production of Washington Territory for the same
year: Gold, ^85,000; silver, ;^iooo; total, $86,000; with the addi-
tional encouragement of increase from year to year.
SUMMARY.
The production of gold, silver, copper, and lead in the New W'est,
for the year ending Jan. i, 1886, appears in the following table : —
STATES AND TERRI-
TORIES.
GOLD DUST AND
BULLION
BY EXPRESS.
GOLD DUST AND
BULLION
BY OTHER CON-
VEYANCES.
SILVER BULLION
BY EXPRESS.
ORES AND BASE
BULLION
BY FREIGHT.
TOTALS.
California . .
Nevada . . .
Oregon . . .
Washington .
Idaho ....
Montana . .
Utah ....
Colorado . .
New Mexico
Arizona , . .
Dakota . . .
$11,750,490
1,253,355
396,937
72,700
905,946
2,091,000
33,362
2,653,000
226,519
726,426
2,506,623
^587,524
198,468
36,350
200,000
60,000
I 20,000
100,000
$1,608,500
6,575.430
12,000
867,410
6,317.512
3,061,424
5,024,000
1,107,627
2,752,068
I 20,000
$1,090,158
1.384,336
2,450,000
5,816,000
5.831,948
13,695,000
2,431,617
2,996,652
$15,036,672
9,213,121
607,405
109,050
4,423,356
14,224,512
8,926,734
21,372,000
3,825,763
6,595.146
2,726,623
Totals ....
$22,616,358
$1,302,342
^29,399.311
^35.695.7"
$87,060,382
MARVELS OF MINING.
513
The annual products of lead, copper, silver, and gold in the New-
West, from 1870 to 1885, are as follows : —
1870.
1871 .
1872.
1873.
1874.
1875.
1876.
1877.
1878.
1879.
1880.
1881.
1882.
1883.
1884.
1885.
Total
^1,080,000
2,100,000
2,250,000
3,450,000
3,800,000
5,100,000
5,040,000
5,085,250
3,452,000
4,185,769
5,742,390
6,361,902
8,008,155
8,163,550
6,834,091
8,562,991
^898,000
1,195,000
4,055.037
5,683,921
6,086,252
7,838,036
^17,320,000
19,286,000
19,924,429
27,483,302
29,699,122
31,635,239
39,292,924
45,846,109
37,248,137
37,032,857
38,033,055
42,987,613
48,133,039
42,975,101
43,529,925
44,516,599
^33,750,000
34,398,000
38,177,395
39,206,558
38,466,488
39,968,194
42,886,935
44,880,223
37,576,030
31,470,262
32,559,067
30,653,959
29,011,318
27,816,640
25,183,567
26,393,756
^52,150,000
55,784,000
60,351,824
70,139,860
71,965,610
76,703,433
87,219,859
95,811,582
78,276,167
72,688,888
77,232,512
81,198,474
89,207,549
84,639,212
81,633,835
87,311,382
1,222,314,187
The following lode veins yielded the sums opposite their names
during the specified portion of 1880: —
Richman Consolidated, for eleven months ^2,449,642
Standard, for eleven months 1,545,854
Ontario, for eleven months 1,628,545
Chrysolite, for nine months, representing ore sold. Yield much greater . . . 1,689,752
Little Chief " " " " " "... 1,103,311
Iron Silver " *' " " " "... 645,425
Eureka Consolidated, ten months of year 1,243,894
Manhattan, ten months of year 739,400
Northern Belle, ten months of year 1,111,525
Contention, ten months of year 867,686
Consolidated Virginia 1,588,620
California 782,298
Ophir 905,924
Silver King (Arizona), monthly 200,000
Home Stake (Black Hills), a new mine, total , . . 840,000
Placer operations embrace millions of money in California, Idaho,
Colorado, and Arizona. One Jmndred and five million dollars ($105,-
SH MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
000,000) have been expended on hydraulic processes in Placer and
Yuba counties, California, and it is estimated that five hundred mil-
lion dollars ($500,000,000) will be taken out of the ground in the
next few years.
The following mines have the sums of money set opposite their
names respectively, as aggregate dividends, to Jan. i, 1880: —
Consolidated Virginia $42,930,000
Belcher 15,307,200
Savage 4,460,000
Yellow Jacket 2,184,000
Ophir 1,594,000
Consolidated Imperial 1,125,000
Confidence 78,000
Succor 22,800
California 30,950,000
Crown and Point 11,688,000
Gould & Curry 3,825,000
Hale & Norcross 1,598,000
Kentuck 1,252,000
Sierra Nevada 102,200
Darncy 57,ooo
Total $125,342,900
Will the mines fail } is a very natural inquiry, to which many
miners even would answer Yes. Some have been exhausted ; others
have not. A class of mines will become exhausted ; another class
will not. The best authority on the subject says : —
"■ History shows that wherever a true fissure vein has been found
it has never been worked out. Such veins have been, in fact,
worked for ages without any perceptible diminution in their yield.
Where ores have decreased in value, the ore bodies have increased
in size, the increase of one compensating for the loss of the other.
Some have even increased their yield, the quality of the ore re-
maining unchanged. Others have been found to deteriorate from
veins of silver to those of baser metals."
ADDITIONAL FACTS AND STATISTICS.
The director of the mint at Washington furnishes a table showing
the world's production of gold and silver for 188 1, 1882, and 1883.
The reader can readily learn from it the place which the United States
occupies among the nations as a producer of the precious metals.
MARVELS OF MINING,
515
^ M
Tf
6
LO
<n
0
06
\o
OS
0
ON
0
m
0
00
OS
^
10
"+
t^
^O
On
8
00
0
00
0
ro
8^
00
en
LO
to
0
(N
Tf
0
0
N
CO
M
M
^
r^
•^
00
CO
10
(N
R
Tf
OS
vH^
0
00
Tf
CO
^D
n
rv
f>
ro
r^
VO
^o
^
^
r^
0
00
M
I/)
Tf
(N
n
•)(!
t4j^
i-(
0
t^
*
M
Os CO CO
"N
O. M_
Tt 00"
^0 •
5i6
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
The director, also, supplies the following instructive table with
remarks : —
" After carefully comparing the returns and information obtained
as to the yield of individual mines, the amount and value of bullion
shipped at railroad stations and express offices in the mining regions,
the reports from the mints and assay offices, from correspondents
and from smelters and refiners and dealers in bullion, I estimate that
the mines of each State and Territory added, during the calendar
year 1884, to the world's stock of gold and silver at their coinage
value as follows : —
STATES OR TSRRITORIES.
Alaska
Arizona
California
Colorado
Dakota
Georgia
Idaho
Montana
Nevada
New Mexico
North Carolina
Oregon
South Carolina
Utah
Virginia
Washington
Wyoming
Alabama, Tennessee, etc.
Totals
GOLD.
SILVER.
TOTALS.
^200,000
. . .
^200,000
930,000
^4,500,000
5,430,000
13,600,000
3,000,000
16,600,000
4,250,000
16,000,000
20,250,000
3,300,000
150,000
3,450,000
137,000
137,000
1,250,000
2,720,000
3,970,000
2, 1 70,000
7,000,000
9,170,000
3,500,000
5,600,000
9,100,000
300,000
3,000,000
3,300,000
157,000
3.500
160,500
660,000
20,000
680,000
57,000
500
57>5oo
I 20,000
6,800,000
6,920,000
2,000
2,000
85,000
1,000
86,000
6,000
6,000
76,000
5,000
81,000
^30,800,000
^48,800,000
^79,600,000
From the " Resources of the Rocky Mountains," by E. J. Farmer,
we copy below some statistical tables and facts, adding thereto the
production of the last few years to bring the report down to the
present time : —
Gold and Silver — World'' s Production and Supply.
Gold. Silver.
Stock in 1492 $500,000,000 $400,000,000
Production 1492 to 1848 3,200,000,000 7,000,000,000
Stock in 1848 . , $3,700,000,000 $7,400,000,000
MARVELS OF MINING. 5^7
Yearly Production since 1848.
Gold. Silver.
1849 ^61,500,000 $39,000,000
1850 70,500,000 39,000,000
185 1 81,500,000 40,000,000
1852 132,750,000 40,600,000
1853 155,450,000 40,600,000
1854 127,450,000 40,600,000
1855 135,070,000 40,600,000
1856 147,600,000 40,650,000
1857 133,275,000 40,650,000
1858 124,650,00^ 40,650,000
1859 124,850,000 40,750,000
i860 119,250,000 40,800,000
1861 ... 113,800,000 42,700,000
1862 107,750,000 45,200,000
1863 106,950,000 49,200,000
1864 113,000,000 51,700,000
1865 120,200,000 51,950,000
1866 121,100,000 50,725,000
1867 114,025,000 54,225,000
1868 . 109,725,000 50,225,000
1869 106,225,000 47,500,000
1870 106,850,000 51,575,000
1 87 1 107,000,000 61,050,000
1872 99,550,000 65,250,000
1873 96,200,000 89,250,000
1874 90,750,000- 71,500,000
1875 97,500,000 80,500,000
1876 95,000,000 74,000,000
1877 97,000,000 81,000,000
1878 86,500,000 73,500,000
1879 105,400,000 81,037,500
1880 94,800,000 72,125,000
1 881 110,000,000 94,000,000
Totals $3,613,175,000 $1,833,112,000
Summary.
Gold. Silver.
Stock in 1492 $500,000,000 $400,000,000
Production 1492 to 1848 3,200,000,000 7,000,000,000
Production 1849 to 188 1 3,613,175,000 1,833,112,000
Totals $7,313,175,000 $9,233,112,000
An estimate of the aggregate production of the precious metals
in all countries, from 1493 to 1881, inclusive, is as follows : —
518
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
NATIONS.
GOLD.
SILVER.
TOTALS.
Germany
Austria-Hungary ...
^339,000,000
750,000,000
195,000,000
765,000,000
894,000,000
1,500,000,000
100,000,000
216,000,000
875,000,000
195,000,000
1,630,000,000
100,000,000
^403,000,000
398,000,000
134,000,000
1,565,000,000
1,869,000,000
125,000,000
3,300,000,000
570,000,000
350,000,000
$403,000,000
734,000,000
750,000,000
329,000,000
765,000,000
894,000,000
1,500,000,000
1,665,000,000
2,085,000,000
1 ,000,000,000
3,495,000,000
2,200,000,000
450,000,000
Africa
Chili
Brazil
New Granada
Australia
Peru
Potosi (Bolivia)
Russia
Mexico
United States . ...
Other countries
Grand total .
^16,263,000,000
To the above 07te billion dollars more must be added to show the
grand total to January, 1886, 07ie-half oi which should be credited to
the United States. The aggregate reaches above seventeen billion
dollars.
It is upon True Fissure veins that the great bonanza mines of the
world have been located. Their names and productions are as
follows : —
Bissenna Silver Mine ^16,311,000
Santa Anna " 21,347,000
Valaneta " 31,813,000
Parniillian " 70,000,000
Veta Madre " 335.935,ooo
Corastock " 365,000,000
Rio Grande " 650,000,000
Sierra Madre " 800,000,000
Potosi " 1,000,000,000
The vi'orld's annual production of gold and silver, of which the United
States produces fully one-half, is at present $200,000,000
During the last twenty-five years, India has taken an average of $38,000,000,
and China $9,000,000, making the average yearly absorption of silver by
these nations 47,000,000
In the arts, the United States is using in gold and silver $15,000,000 yearly,
and the rest of the world fully $35,000,000 more, making in all per annum 50,000,000
Counting loss and abrasion 3,000,000
We have left for the purposes of coinage for the entire world only . . . $100,000,000
MARVELS OF MINING.
519
The report of J. Ross Browne on the "Mineral Resources of the
United States west of the Rocky Mountains," has the following,
which we copy that the reader may contrast twenty years ago with
now : —
" From the best information available, the following is a near ap-
proximation to the total gold and silver product for the year ending
Jan. I, 1867 : —
California ^25,000,000
Nevada 20,000,000
Montana 12,000,000
Idaho 6,500,000
Washington 1,000,000
Oregon $2,000,000
Colorado 2,500,000
New Mexico 500,000
Arizona 500,000
Total $70,000,000
" Add for bullion derived from unknown sources within our States
and Territories, unaccounted for by assessors and express companies,
etc., $5,000,000.
"Total product of the United States, $75,000,000.
" The bullion product of Washington is estimated by the surveyor-
general at $1,500,000. That of Oregon is rated as high as $2,500,-
000. Intelligent residents of Idaho and Montana represent that the
figures given in the above estimate, so far as these Territories are
concerned, are entirely too low, and might be doubled without exceed-
ing the truth. The product of Idaho alone for this year is said to be
fi-om $15,000,000 to $18,000,000. That of Montana is estimated by
the surveyor-general at $20,000,000. Similar exceptions are taken
to the estimates of Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. As I have
no grounds for accepting these statements beyond the assertion that
most of the bullion is carried away in the pockets of the miners, I
am inclined to rely upon the returns of the assessors, express com-
panies, and official tables of experts. Admitting that a fraction over
seven per cent may have escaped notice, although reasonable allow-
ance is made for this in the estimate of $70,000,000, and that a con-
siderable sum may be derived from sources not enumerated, I feel
confident the allowance of $5,000,000 is sufficient to cover the entire
bullion product of the United States for the year 1867 ; thus making
the aggregate from all sources $75,000,000, as stated in the report of
the Secretary of the Treasury.
" I have endeavored to obtain returns of the annual product of
each State and Territory since 1848; but, for the reasons already
stated, and in the absence of reliable statistics, it has been impossi-
ble to make the necessary division with more than approximate accu-
520 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
racy. As nearly as I can judge from the imperfect returns available,
the following, in round numbers, is not far from the total product : —
California $900,000,000
Nevada 90,000,000
Montana 65,000,000
Id'iho 45,000,000
Washington 10,000,000
Oregon 20,000,000
Colorado 25,000,000
New Mexico and Arizona 5,000,000
In jewelry, plate, spoons, etc., and retained fur circulation on Pacific coast . 45,000,000
Total $1,205,000,000
"Add for amounts buried or concealed, and amounts from un-
enumerated sources, and of which no account may have been taken,
$50,000,000, and we have ;^ 1,25 5,000,000.
"This statement requires explanation. Up to 1855 a considera-
ble portion of the gold taken from California was not manifested. ^
In 1849 t^""^ actual yield was probably $10,000,000 ; in 1850, $35,000,-
000; in 185 1, $46,000,000; in 1852, $50,000,000; in 1853, $60,000,-
000; and in 1854, $53,000,000."
" Have precious gems been found in the New West } " it is asked.
Yes ; opals, topaz, amethyst, agates, jasper, onyx, garnets, carnelian,
chalcedony, jet, sapphires, malachite, azurite, tourmaline, beryl, crys-
tal, sardonyx, and diamonds, — all these are found in the New West,
though not in that profusion, of course, for which they are known in
the Orient.
MORALS OF MINING CAMPS.
Roughs became a prominent factor in the early history of most
mining camps. But, in self-defence, the moral and reliable citizens
soon weeded them out. Mining camps that have outgrown their
swaddling-clothes will show a large per cent of intelligent, honest,
enterprising, and virtuous citizens. Twenty years ago, when mining
in the New West was in its infancy. Bayard Taylor visited many min-
ing camps of Colorado, and, in a volume which he published subse-
quently, he said : —
"The degree of refinement which I have found in the remote
mining districts of Colorado has been a great surprise. California,
1 Large amounts were buried by miners to conceal it, and many of these miners died, so
that their concealed treasures are buried still, except in a few instances where they have
been accidentally unearthed.
MARVELS OF MINING. 521
after ten years settlement, retained a proportion of the rough, origi-
nal mining element ; but Montana has acted as a social strainer to
Colorado ; or, rather, as a miner's pan, shaking out a vast deal of
dirt and leaving the gold behind. Mr. Leonhardy and his neighbors
live in rude cabins, but they do not therefore relinquish the graces of
life. It is only the Jialf cultivated who, under such circumstances,
relapse towards barbarism. Mountain life soon rubs off the veneer-
ing, and we know of what wood men are made."
We think that Charles H. Shinn, author of '' Mining Camps," puts
the matter clearly in the following paragraph : —
"As we have seen, there were times in almost every camp when
the rowdy element came near ruling, and only the powerful and
hereditary organizing instincts of the Americans present ever brought
order out of chaos. In nearly every such crisis, there were men of
the right stamp at hand, to say the brave word, or do the brave act ;
to appeal to Saxon love of fair play ; to seize the murderer, or defy
the mob. Side by side in the same gulch, working in claims of eight
paces square, were, perhaps, fishermen from Cape Ann, loggers from
Penobscot, farmers from the Genesee Valley, physicians from the
prairies of Iowa, lawyers from Maryland and Louisiana, cpllege grad-
uates from Yale, Harvard, and the University of Virginia. From so
variously mingled elements, came that terribly exacting mining-camp
society, which tested with pitiless and unerring tests each man's
individual manhood, discovering his intrinsic worth or weakness with
almost superhuman precision, until at last the ablest and best men
became leaders. They fought their way to the surface through fierce
oppositions, and with unblenching resolution suppressed crime, and
built up homes in the region they had learned to love."
The Anglo-Saxon race finally asserts itself in the mining camp, to
control its boisterous elements, as it does in the town.
Mr. Shinn eloquently discusses this matter in another and grander
phase, thus : —
''Though every mining camp perished to-morrow, the impulse that
gave them birth would still survive. The local life, strength, and
energy of the early camps has already passed as a powerful force, not
as a name, into the warp and woof of society. . . .
''- We walk the streets of San Francisco, — leaders in business here,
who once were citizens of a camp and swingers of picks in the beds
of mountain torrents. We enter the political field, — giants of debate
and caucus here, whose first efforts to control their fellow-men were
under the Mariposa oaks, or beneath the dome of Shasta. We
522 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
traverse the pastoral regions of the West, prairies dotted for miles
with cattle, herds upon a thousand hills, — sun-browned patriarchal
princes here, a hundred herdsmen at their command, five hundred
horses in their inaiiadas. . . . We visit the prosperous and beautiful
colonies of Southern California, fair as a garden of the Lord, — realms
of cherry and apple, olive and orange, grape and pomegranate, fig and
guava, loquat and passiflora, fruits and flowers of two broad zones,
mingled in rapturous profusion underneath azure skies as of Capri
and Sicily, — and here also, in the midst of colonists from all parts of
the world, is some man of pre-eminent force and dignity of character,
trained in the school of the early mines, transmuting by earth's subtle
alchemy his golden nuggets of '49 to yet more golden apples of Hes-
perides, and planting golden-banded lilies of Osaka in the place of
golden leaves from Proserpine's subterranean gardens. We may
even seek the great cities, whither all currents flow, — New York,
London, Paris, Berlin, St. Petersburg, — the marts of commerce, the
counting-houses of Barings and Rothschilds, the courts of czar and
emperor, the wonderful Broadways of many a metropolis, flowing like
Amazonian rivers day and night without pause, and we shall find
men long trained in the lessons of the mining camps, walking as calm
conquerors through the midst of this world of tumult, action, and
desperate struggle, ruling railroad systems, laying ocean cables, plan-
ning for isthmus canals, aiding in a thousand enterprises that require
energy, capital, knowledge of men, and prestige of former success, yet
faithful in heart, cosmopolites though they are, to the memories of
their young manhood, the companions of their Argonautic quest, the
* pards ' of their pick-and-shovel days in Sierra or Rocky. Upon facts
like these rest the social results of the mining-camp training."
True, corruption abounds in mining camps ; and so it does out-
side. Vice and crime revel in some mining communities ; so they do
in a multitude of towns and cities throughout the land. Leadville,
San Francisco, and even Virginia City, cannot compete with New
York, Cincinnati, and Chicago, in the martyrdom of virtue. Neither
ignorance nor immorality offer up such holocausts of human happi-
ness in the New West as appall the East and South. With all their
vices, the character of mining camps averages better than their repu-
tation.
MINING KINGS.
k
524 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
MINING KINGS.
HORACE A. W. TABOR.
The life of H. A. W. Tabor is an illustration of the adage, " Prov-
idence helps those who help themselves," as well as of the following
passage from Shakespeare : —
" There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune."
He was born in Orleans County, Vermont, Nov. 26, 1830. In
1855 he emigrated to Kansas and engaged in farming. As an active
member of the Free Soil party, he participated in the decisive scenes
which marked the period during the dark days of border ruffianism.
He was a member of the Topeka legislature in 1857, which was dis-
persed by Colonel Sumner at the point of the bayonet, by order of
President Pierce. In 1859 ^e came to Colorado and went at once to
Clear Creek County, spending the following winter in Denver. He
located the next spring in California Gulch, where he was exclusively
engaged in mining up to 1865. He then began merchandising, and
followed it in connection with mining from that time on with varied
success until May i, 1878. At that time, although he had not suc-
ceeded in acquiring great wealth, he was far from poor, having accu-
mulated a competency of some $35,000.
During these years of his mercantile life in California Gulch, he
was always the firm friend of the miner and prospector ; and it is
said of him that he was ever ready to give them credit, however un-
fortunate may have been their successive ventures. In May, 1878,
August Rische and George F. Hook, whom he had *' grub-staked,"
made the discovery of the mine which has since become famous as
the "Little Pittsburg," he being entitled by the agreement to one-
third. Mr. Hook soon afterward disposed of his interest in the claim
to his partners, and Mr. Rische, in turn, sold out to the Hon. J. B.
Chaffee and D. H. Moffat, Jr.
In 1879 Mr. Tabor disposed of his interest in the Little Pittsburg
for ^1,000,000, Messrs. Chaffee and Moffat being the purchasers, and
then purchased about one-half of the stock of the First National
Bank of Denver, at the same time purchasing the Matchless mine at
Leadville. He also owned a fourth interest in the mining property,
of Borden, Tabor & Co., comprising five or six mines which yielded
$100,000 a month. Of his mining property in the San Juan country.
MARVELS OF MINING. 525
we mention the Alaska, Adelphi, Acapulco, and the Victory mines,
situated in Poughkeepsie Gulch, in all of which he is interested,
besides which, he is the sole owner of the Red Roger and the Saxon.
All these mines are in an advanced stage of development. He has
also valuable mining property in Alpine. Although making such
extended investments in mines, with the result of inspiring confi-
dence in the mineral resources of Colorado, and attracting other cap-
italists to the new State, he has not confined his attention to mining
interests alone, but has employed a portion of his wealth in perma-
nent improvements in both Leadville and Denver, owning in the
latter city alone, about $225,000 worth of real estate. During the
year 1880 he completed a fine brown-stone front, five-story building,
costing about $165,000, on the corner of Sixteenth and Larimer
streets, the ground floor being devoted to elegant stores, the First
National Bank occupying the corner.
In Leadville, in addition to his mining property, he has some
$65,000 worth of real estate. His fine opera-house, costing about
$35,000, was completed in sixty days from the letting of the con-
tracts. Senator Tabor was for a long time a director of the First
National Bank of Denver, and also vice-president of this bank. He
held the office of county treasurer of Lake County, and was mayor of
Leadville during the first fourteen months of its existence as a city.
He was also president of the Leadville Improvement Company, to
which is due the only really fine street in Leadville, — Harrison Av-
enue, ninety feet wide, — which this company laid out and donated to
the city. He was also president of the Leadville Gas Company,
which was organized in July, 1879, and on the ist of November fol-
lowing had three and a half miles of mains laid. Senator Tabor's
decision of character, quickness of perception and promptness of
action mark his every movement. He no sooner decides than he
begins to act. To illustrate : The transaction before alluded to, by
which he closed out his remaining stock in the Little Pittsburg Mining
Company for $1,000,000, bought eight hundred and eighty shares of
the First National Bank of Denver, and at the same time purchased
the Matchless mine at Leadville for $117,000, took place in the short
space of fifteen minutes.
In October, 1878, he was elected the first lieutenant-governor of
Colorado, and believing no man should accept a public trust without
performing its labors to the best of his ability, he at once devoted his
attention to preparing himself for parliamentary duties, and, as pres-
ident of the senate, acquitted himself with great honor, and proved
526 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
one of the best parliamentarians who ever occupied the position of
presiding officer over that body. Governor Tabor's heavy invest-
ments in Chicago property have attracted the attention of the whole
country, and produced a stimulating effect upon the real estate mar-
ket of that city.
The grand-opera house building, the handsomest in America, was
erected in 1882, and it will ever remain a lasting monument to Mr.
Tabor's enterprise, public spirit, and generosity. His election to the
United States Senate in 1883, by the legislature of Colorado, was a
fitting testimonial of the high regard entertained for him by his
Colorado admirers. Although for a limited period, it was none the
less a high honor of which any man might feel proud.
Under his management the Matchless mine has been a constant
producer, amounting in some months as high as $80,000.
His investment comprising 175,000 acres of copper lands in the
State of Texas, promise him a future income beyond calculation.
Another investment illustrating his sagacity and keen business judg-
ment is the 4,600,000 acres of cattle-grazing lands in Southern Colo-
rado. In addition. Senator Tabor is largely interested in numerous
mining companies, irrigating canals, mining and other enterprises,
giving employment to hundreds of men, and aiding in the develop-
ment of the vast resources of our New West.
His concession from the president of the Republic of Honduras
is a veritable ** Aladdin's lamp" opportunity. It comprises every al-
ternate section of land, for four hundred miles, bordering upon the Pa-
took River. Upon this land are immense groves of mahoganv, ebony,
and other valuable woods ; banana and other tropical fruit orchards ;
gold, silver, coal, and other mineral deposits. In addition to the sec-
tion grant, he has a mineral grant of one hundred and fifty square
miles in the interior. Mr. Tabor is probably the largest land-owner
in the world.
His great Tam O'Shanter group of mines near Aspen, Colorado,
the famous New Mexico mines, the wonderful acres of mineral depos-
its, comprising his Old Mexico properties, and other possessions,
really makes it too exhaustive to even enumerate.
JOHN L. ROUTT.
He was born in Eddyville, Lyon County, Kentucky, in 1826. In
1835, when John was ten years old, his parents removed to Bloom-
ington, 111., where he lived on a farm four years. There was not
MARVELS OF MINING. 527
excitement and promise enough in farm life to a boy of his enterpris-
ing spirit, and he desired another vocation. His parents were in-
clined to favor his choice, and, after canvassing the matter quite
thoroughly, John was apprenticed to a carpenter. Before the carpen-
ter's trade was fully learned, however, circumstances seemed to favor
a change, and he shifted to the trade of a machinist, continuing to fol-
low it until he was twenty-five years of age. His tact in trading, with
a strong inclination in that direction, led him about that time into
speculation in land and stocks. His ability in this line drew atten-
tion to him, and he became the first collector of Bloomington town-
ship in 1858, and in i860 was made sheriff of his county. The war
of the Rebellion soon broke out, and he became a soldier in the
Union army. Here, his tact, ability, and loyalty, attracted the atten-
tion of the officers under whom he served, and, without even an
apphcation on his part, he was appointed assistant quartermaster,
with rank of captain. He proved to be the right man in the right
place. Important trusts were committed to him, and he discharged
them with a promptness and fidelity that won the confidence of his
superior officers. His accounts with the government were kept so
accurately, that, at the close of the war, they were adjusted without
the least difficulty, — a fact that could not be stated of a large num-
ber of quartermasters in the Union army.
At the close of the war, he returned to Bloomington, and soon
after was elected county treasurer, an office which he filled very
acceptably four years. In this position he rendered efficient service
in settling the '* bounty cases," and also in planning and building
the magnificent court-house in Bloomington.
In 1869 President Grant appointed him chief clerk in the bureau
of second assistant postmaster-general, at Washington, in which
office he proved himself able and efficient, until the President ap-
pointed him United States marshal for the southern district of Illi-
nois, in 1870. Both of these positions were offered to him without
any solicitation on his part. Offices came to him unsought, for he
was in no sense a scheming politician.
He had acted as United States marshal scarcely a year, when he
received the appointment by telegram from Washington, of second
assistant postmaster-general. His efficiency when he was chief clerk
of that bureau was the reason of this appointment. A good chief
clerk would make a good assistant postmaster-general. He contin-
ued in this office until 1875, when the President appointed him Terri-
torial governor of Colorado. The appointment was so popular at
528 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Washington that Congress determined to do him special honor by
their confirmation. On receipt of the appointment, the Senate went
into executive session immediately, and, in eight minutes after being
called to order, confirmed his nomination by a unanimous vote. The
same ability and fidelity which had characterized him in other posi-
tions, made him successful and honored as Territorial governor. He
won the public confidence so largely, that one year later, when Col-
orado became a State, he was elected its first governor. Large-
hearted, public-spirited, with uncommon practical ability, his guber-
natorial career was a grand success.
On retiring from public life, he engaged in the mining business
at Leadville. He purchased the Morning Star, in October, 1877, for
one thoiisajid dollars. Of course the mine was not a promising one ;
the low price proves that. But Routt could see further into the
ground than many people, and he had strong faith in his purchase.
He pushed the development of his mine, sometimes under discourag-
ing circumstances, every month running into debt, paying eighteen
per cent interest for borrowed money. The resolute man kept push-
ing forward for about two years, when his perseverance and foresight
were rewarded by discovering the richest silver mine in Colorado.
Before its full value was determined, he sold two-fifths of the mine in
order to pay the heavy debt under which he was staggering. Soon
afterwards he found that he possessed a mine which tJiree million dol-
lars (^3,000,000) could not buy. It yielded him fifty tJiousand dollars
($50,000) per month.
Mr. Routt resides in Denver, occupying one of its palatial residen-
ces, looking after his mining interests, which are extensive and pro-
lific, and sharing the confidence of the community whose welfare he
has ever sought to promote.
JOHN P. JONES.
John P. Jones was born in Herefordshire, England, in 1830, being
now fifty-seven years of age. His parents were upright and intelli-
gent, as well as enterprising and industrious. His father hoped to
improve his material condition by emigrating to the United States,
and he came to this country before John was a year old. He settled
in the northern part of Ohio, where he purchased government lands,
and devoted himself to farming. John began to labor on the farm
as soon as he was old enough, and was an energetic, plucky boy. Be-
fore he was twelve years old, he was an indispensable aid to his
MARVELS OF MINING. 529
father, his filial love and obedience always controlling his service.
He early enjoyed the small advantages of the inferior schools of that
day and region, improving his time with commendable application.
Soon after entering upon his teens, he was sent to school at Cleveland
for a time. His stay was comparatively short, however, as the purse
of his father was not sufficiently ample to endure a heavy strain ; and
then the farm demanded his labors.
He was eighteen years old when gold was discovered in California ;
and the excitement occasioned thereby throughout the country
caught him up in its whirlwind sweep, and set him down at the
"Golden Gate." His parents were not altogether in favor of this
great change, since they possessed a somewhat just estimate of the
society of a new country, and especially the temptations of a mining
camp. But the enterprising spirit of the boy, and the hope that
everything would turn out for the best, secured their consent finally ;
and so, with plenty of good advice and a small capital, he hurried
away to California, where he began both farming and mining in one
of the inland counties. That he was successful in a good degree is
evident from the fact that he won the confidence of his fellow-citi-
zens as to character and ability. They committed to him important
trusts, and finally elected him to the General Assembly, and after-
wards to the State senate. For a series of years he was personally
identified with public interests, at the same time accumulating con-
siderable property, though not rich according to the California
standard.
When public attention was turned to the silver mines of Nevada,
in 1867, he resolved to take up his abode in that Territory and strike
for a fortune. Going thither he found almost insurmountable obsta-
cles in his way, not the least of which were the depredations of the
Apache Indians. But his courage and perseverance served him a
good purpose, and, in spite of savages and desperadoes, he pursued
his mining operations with marked success. Wealth poured in upon
him, not only by thousands, but also by millions ; and the Ohio
farmer boy soon became known as the Nevada millionnaire. As
"money makes the mare go" in the New West, as it does elsewhere,
his influence and popularity increased with his riches, and Nevadians
soon learned to submit valuable trusts to his care. Finally, he was
elected to the United States Senate as one of the silver kings of
silvery Nevada. He took his seat in the Senate, as a Republican, on
March 4, 1873. He has been twice re-elected to that position
by the Republican party of Nevada, and his present senatorial term
530 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
will expire on March 3, 1891. Should he live to complete his pres-
ent term of service, it will make a round eighteen years of senatorial
life, a fact that proves his labors in this public capacity to have
been satisfactory to his constituents.
JAMES GRAHAM FAIR.
James G. Fair was born near Belfast, Ireland, Dec. 3, 1831, and
is therefore one year the junior of Senator Jones. His parents
came to this country in 1843, when James was twelve years old.
They settled in Illinois, which was on the outskirts of civilization at
that time. A purchase of government land secured a farm of ample
dimensions on which James worked with his father, at the same time
attending school whenever an opportunity offered. The school privi-
leges of Illinois were very limited then, but such as they were he
enjoyed, and finally went to school for a time in Chicago. This con-
stituted all the schooling he ever had.
He was seized with the gold fever in 1849, ^^"^^ ^^ raged for months
before his parents consented that he should go to California. Seeing
no prospect of curing the fever by any remedies known to them, they
yielded to his importunities, and away he went to the El Dorado that
had lured his soul. He engaged in mining at once ; and with com-
mendable industry and perseverance was tolerably successful, though
he by no means realized his high expectations. He maintained his
integrity, however, amidst the temptations and corruptions of the
mining camp, and never so much as abandoned the thought of mak-
ing a fortune in that land of gold. Thus he planned and labored
until i860, when he concluded that Nevada was nearer to a fortune
for him than California was. He was financially prepared to engage
in business in that Territory, which is considerable more than could
be said of many who emigrated to that Apache-smitten country. He
began operations at once, in a spirit that seemed to assure success at
any price ; and his operations e^ilarged rapidly to huge dimensions.
No bonanza worker ever constructed larger quartz-mills, nor built
water-works on a more practicable and grander scale. He was now
successful even beyond his anticipations. His income increased to
such an extent as to startle himself. He got more than he bargained
for. His riches became immense speedily. The poor Irish boy
became a millionnaire almost before he dreamed of such an expe-
rience.
At that time John W. Mackay, James C. Flood, and William S.
MARVELS OF MINING. 531
O'Brien, were successful miners in California, and Fair entered into
partnership with them. This union made a remarkably strong firm
financially, and they ''purchased the control of the Bonanzas and
various other well-known mines," in Nevada, which turned out wealth
to fabulous amounts. Mr. Fair superintended the operations, and it
is claimed that, during the time he managed the business, over two
hundred million dollars were taken out of the mines. He is exten-
sively engaged, also, in the manufactures of the Pacific coast, and in
real estate and building in San Francisco. He is not now a member
of the firm spoken of, having withdrawn several years ago. His
wealth is estimated at tzvelve niillions. He was elected to the United
States Senate, and took his seat March 4, 1881. His term of service
expired March 3, 1887, and he retired to private life.
JEROME B. CHAFFEE.
The life of Jerome B. Chaffee was identified with the history of
Colorado. He was born in Niagara County, State of New York,
April 17, 1825. He received an academic ' education, and when
quite young removed to Michigan. Subsequently he removed to St.
Joseph, Mo., where he engaged in banking. In 1857 he organized
the Elmwood Town Company, in Kansas, and became secretary and
manager. In the spring of i860 he took up his abode in Colorado
for the purpose of mining. He located in what is now Gilpin County ;
and, in company with Eben Smith, erected the Smith & Chaffee
Stamp Mill.
He secured the consolidation of several lodes, known since as the
famous "Bob-Tail Lode and Tunnel," its name being derived from
the fact that a bob-tailed ox, harnessed to a drag, was used for hauling
the pay-dirt to the gulch for sluicing. In 1869 he effected another and
large consolidation, and became the heaviest stockowner in the com-
pany. This company became known as the most prosperous as well as
most extensive mining corporation in Colorado, producing annually
from $300,000 to $500,000. A few years thereafter Mr. Chaffee
owned a hundred gold and silver lodes — more than any other man
in Colorado at that time. Among them was the celebrated Carabou
Silver Mine. He was a stockholder also in the celebrated " Little
Pittsburg Consolidated Mining Company."
In 1865 Mr. Chaffee purchased the business of Clark & Co.,
bankers in Denver, and organized the First National Bank, of which
he became president, and continued in that office until 1880. Under
532 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
his management this bank became one of the most reliable and popu-
lar institutions of the kind in the country.
His political career began in 1861, when he was sent from Gilpin
County to the first Territorial Legislature as a Republican. In 1863,
he was returned to the Legislature, and was elected speaker of the
House of Representatives. In 1865 the people of Colorado organ-
ized a State government under an enabling act of Congress, and Mr.
Chaffee was elected United States Senator.
In Congress, he was very industrious and influential, securing the
passage of many acts of great benefit, not only to Colorado, but to
other States as well. It was through his efforts that necessary and
beneficial legislation in behalf of the Indians was accomplished at
that time.
In 1876, under the new State government, he was elected again
to the United States Senate, with Hon. H. M. Teller, drawing the
short term, which began December, 1876, and expired March 3, 1879.
The longer he continued in Congress, the more valuable his public
services became. During his short term in the United States Senate
he was influential in securing enactments for the better development
of the mining interest in the New West, improvement in the methods
of managing railroads, together with several other matters of equal
importance to the country.
Mr. Chaffee was a pronounced Republican, and was sent as dele-
gate to every presidential nominating convention, from the birth of
the party to the time of his death, which occurred in 1884. He was
the possessor of great wealth, and used it freely in developing the
resources and promoting the interests of his own State, whose people
cherish his memory because of the debt of gratitude under which his
public acts placed them. ''Accustomed to enterprises of great mag-
nitude, he was, in business, distinguished for great breadth of views,
quickness of perception, and promptness of action, which enabled him
to comprehend almost instantly plans of the greatest moment, and at
once to put them into execution."
NATHANIEL P. HILL.
The subject of this sketch was born in Orange County, State of
New York, in 1832. His father was a farmer, more intelligent and
enterprising than many of his fraternity in that locality ; and these
qualities gave him popularity and influence in town and county. He
served the State as a member of the General Legislative Assembly,
MARVELS OF MINING. 533
and for a number of years filled the office of county judge credita-
bly. He valued culture, and sought the best school advantages for
his children that the times and place afforded. His wife, the mother
of our subject, was a helpmate in every sense of the word, fitted by
her intelligence and solidity of character, to occupy the highest seat
of honor with her husband.
Nathaniel had a good start, of course. To start well from the
fireside is a good start indeed. Many fail in life for the want of it.
It helped him to succeed. He loved books and school, was obedi-
ent, willing to work, enterprising and persistent, just the boy to be
thought well of in the neighborhood. Early in life he decided, in his
own mind, to obtain a liberal education, and his parents favored his
ambition. He employed his evenings and leisure hours out of school
in intellectual improvement. His plans were somewhat interrupted,
however, by the death of his father, when Nathaniel was sixteen
years of age. From that time the management of the farm depended
on him, a responsibility which he accepted without any misgiving.
While taking good care of the large farm with its onerous burdens, he
studied hard every evening and during the winter seasons, so that he
was well fitted for college at twenty-one years of age, and entered
Brown University, Providence, R.I., where he distinguished himself
as a scholar. Physical science was his favorite study ; and having
graduated with high honors, he was immediately appointed tutor in
the chemical department. His success there led to his appointment
as professor of chemistry in i860, in which capacity he taught until
1864. That year he was sent by a party of Boston and Providence
capitalists to Colorado, to report on the Beaubien land grant, with a
view to a purchase. While there, his attention was directed to the
wasteful methods employed to save the precious metals. He saw at
once that the opportunity for great improvement in the method of
smelting ores was before him, and he seized it. He studied the sub-
ject thoroughly, visited the smelting establishments of Europe, and
then, having secured the co-operation of abundant capital, he organ-
ized the "Boston and Colorado Smelting Company." A furnace was
erected at Black Hank, and was enlarged from year to year, as the
business rapidly increased, and in 1878 the works were removed to
Denver, where they have grown into the enormous " Argo Smelting
Works," the business of which, from its start, amounts to about thii'ty-
nine million dollars. The total weight of gold shipped by the com-
pany to Jan. I, 1886, was twenty tons of gold and seven Jnmdred and
eighty tons of silver.
534 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
In 1879 Professor Hill was elected to the Senate of the United
States, where he distinguished himself by his wisdom and ability.
His influence was felt in almost every important measure before the
Senate, and his record was unimpeachable from beginning to end.
Although Professor Hill does not represent mining ores particu-
larly, as do the mining kings to which attention has already been
called, nevertheless, he represents a most important branch of the
industry, which, under his efficient management, has served to
develop the mineral resources of Colorado rapidly, successfully, and
wonderfully.
J. F. MATTHEWS.
J. F. Matthews was born on the island of Cuba, in 1847, and is
now just forty years of age. His father was a sugar-dealer, the chief
partner in the firm of Matthews & Safford, which had business con-
nections with the well-known sugar-house of Moses Taylor in New
York. At the age of eight years his father sent him to school in
New York City. At twelve years of age he entered the college at
Georgetown, D.C. After three years' study ill health forced him to
leave college, and he returned to Cuba. For three years he was con-
nected with a mercantile house in that island, then travelled ej^ten-
sively in Europe for pleasure and profit, finally accepting a clerkship
in Paris with a large South American house. He remained three
years in Paris, then returned to America, settling in Philadelphia,
where he married a Miss Patterson, and accumulated some property
in the shipping trade.
In 1875 Mr. Matthews removed to Colorado, and entered into the
business of ore sampling and concentration, at Georgetown, the name
of the firm being Matthews & Co. In 1875 the works were reduced
to ashes, by a disastrous fire. But with his accustomed pluck and
energy, Mr. M. set himself to work at once to retrieve his fortune,
the result of which was the firm of Matthews & Webb, " Ore and
Bullion Brokers," of Denver. The amount of business which this
company do may be learned from the fact that, in 1886, it amounted
to tJiree million dollars, and this year will exceed those figures.
Another says: "J. F. Matthews is a gentleman of unusual ability.
He has built up the great business just noticed from a very small
beginning, having won the good will and confidence of every one by
his high qualities as a citizen, and his perfect fairness and rectitude
as a business man.
V. MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING.
3>*iC
THE paradise of stock-raisers lies between the Missouri River
and the Pacific coast. The New West is the kingdom of
*' cattle-kings." They live royally in this empire of prairie and
valley. They spread a table for both Americans and Englishmen.
Ubiquitous Yankees exchange courtesies with Brother Jonathan
under the shadow of the snow-capped Rockies. All the cattle of
the New West, gathered into one imposing "round up," would
convert the " Great American Desert " into a stockyard, to chal-
lenge the curiosity of the .world.
The statistician of the Department of Agriculture at Washington
reports the whole number of farm animals in the United States,
February, 1887, as follows : —
Horses 12,496,744
Mules 2,117,141
Milch Cows 14,522,083
Oxen and other cattle . . . 33,511,750
Sheep 44,759,314
Swine 44,612,896
Total 152,019,928
The following table shows what number of the sum total are
found in the New West : —
LOCALITY.
HORSES.
MULES.
MILCH cows.
OXEN AND
OTHER CATTLE.
SHEEP.
SWINE. .
Kansas .
Nebraska
California
Oregon .
Nevada .
Colorado
Arizona
Dakota .
Idaho. .
Montana
New Mex
Utah . .
Washingtc
Wyoming
CO .
)n .
593,358
382,389
289,626
167,775
44,654
123,770
10,168
227,027
48,750
129,203
20,786
56,136
94,237
82,500
83,596
40,358
36,284
3,155
1,657
8,165
1,863
11,964
2,436
9,229
10,912
3,579
1,231
2,850
609,601
333,839
243,469
75,959
17,683
57,294
15,232
199,480
24,498
29,095
18,829
44,544
62,403
6,358
1,583,915
1,048,200
8,088,040
643,245
317,059
1,070,768
243,710
710,934
339,453
812,784
1,220,968
219,842
300,676
1,255,298
1,106,852
439,700
6,069,698
2,593,029
674,486
1,149,178
627,201
256,209
23^413
754,688
4,025,742
658,285
555,439
534,020
2,161,419
2,382,168
1,017,322
229,920
14,593
21,290
13,701
427,176
28,110
20,263
20,990
28,656
90,152
2,750
Totals ....
•
2,270,379
217,279
1,738,284 17,844,892 19,675,940
6,458,510
536 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
More than half the oxen and other cattle of the United States are
in the New West, and nearly half of the sheep. The whole number
of farm animals in the New West, at the present time, is 48,205,284,
nearly one-third of the entire number in the United States. Add
the animals in all the States west of the Mississippi, and the aggre-
gate is about seventy-four millions, or nearly one-half the number in
the whole country. The '* oxen and other cattle " west of the Missis-
sippi number about twenty-eight millions, which is more than five
times the number east of the Mississippi. Adding sheep in the same
way, and they number about twenty-seven million, which is ten mil-
lion more than are found east of the Mississippi.
The same authority at Washington reports the available pasturage
of all grades of quality, still in possession of the government, after
examination of the entire area, and consultation with stock-growers
and others, as follows : —
Acres.
Dakota 75,000,000
Nebraska 47,000,000
Kansas 50,000,000
New Mexico 63,374,400
Utah 32,500,000
Colorado 45,440,000
Wyoming 50,000,000
Montana 68,500,000
Acres.
.Idaho 35,500,000
Washington 25,300,000
Oregon 45,000,000
California 69,850,000
Nevada 38,299,789
Arizona 40,000,000
Total 685,733,789
Much of the so-called grazing land is annually converted into ara-
ble land ; so that the acreage of the former is constantly diminishing,
while that of the latter is increasing.
The foregoing statistics become more significant when we consider
that only four of the fourteen States and Territories mentioned had
any stock to report in 1850. Savages and herds of buffalo roamed
over this vast domain, but stock-raisers were unknown there. Ten
years later, in i860, there were still five Territories having nothing of
the kind to report. Even Colorado had but just begun to live, with
no stock-raising to record. The same was true of Arizona, Idaho,
Montana, and Wyoming. As late as 1870, Colorado reported only
6,446 horses, 1,173 niules, 25,017 milch cows, 5,566 working oxen, and
40,153 other cattle — a total of 78,355. Of sheep, the Territory could
boast of only 120,928, and of swine, 5,509. The value of all this
live stock was only $2,871,102 — less than three million dollars ! The
growth of this industry in Colorado, in sixteen years, is marvellous
indeed. From two hundred thousand animals to more than three mil-
lion ! From less than three million dollars in value to sixty million !
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. 537
In 1870, Montana had but 5,289 horses, 475 mules, 12,432 milch
cows, 1,761 working oxen, and 22,545 other cattle — a total of only
42,502 — with 2,024 sheep and 2,599 swine. The whole value of this
live stock was less than two million dollars. In sixteen years advan-
cing from forty-eight thousand animals to one million tzvo kiindj^ed
thousand — twenty-five times as many in sixteen years. From a value
of less than two million dollars to r\Q2ir\y forty million dollars.
The growth of this industry in other parts of the New West is
equally marked, but our limited space forbids further particulars. I
may add, however, that as the States and Territories grow older, the
grazing lands diminish and the farming lands increase. Only a few
years ago, Kansas was an immense grazing section ; but now its lands
are surveyed and fenced farms. Agriculture crowds out stock-raising.
Within a few years the same will be true of Nebraska and Colorado ;
and, finally, the whole New West will succumb to this process of
bringing the land under cultivation. Not that stock-raising will be
supplanted ; but improved breeds of cattle will be raised on fenced
farms, where they can range over but a limited area, and where they
will be stalled and fed in winter after the manner of the East.
Governor Crittenden, of Missouri, addressed the first National
Convention of Cattlemen in St. Louis, Nov. 17, 1884, and in his
address, he facetiously remarked : —
" No history, aside from the Bible, gives an authentic account of
the origin of cattle. Two and two they went into the ark with man,
and from that time to this they have been the objects of trade, com-
manding at all times, from the day when Jacob outwitted his father-
in-law, Laban, to this convention, the shrewdest and most refined
intellects. Caesar, in his Commentaries, states that the British in his
time had great numbers of cattle, though of no special size or beauty ;
and those wild islanders were kept quite busy in keeping their cattle
out of the way of the Roman eagles, showing that even then men
and soldiers were no better than now — in 'handling stock.' The
magnitude of the cattle trade in this country forms a subject of pro-
found interest, not only to our own people, but also to those beyond
the dividing seas. The immense herds, scattered from Maine to Cali-
fornia, are the offspring of a single bull and one or more cows, im-
ported into this country in 1493 by Christopher Columbus a few days
before a custom house had been established upon our soil and officers
appointed to vex travellers by inquisitive questions. They came
in on the free list as raw material, and some acquisitive Mexicans,
Americans, Indians, and negroes still think they are on the free list
538 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
— only convinced to the contrary by ' a short shrift and a long rope '
in the hands of some travelling judges who still believe in that old,
solemn law of mine and thine."
The magnitude of the cattle business, as expressed by the fore-
going figures and remarks, was illustrated by Hon. Norman J. Cole-
man, United States Commissioner of Agriculture, at the National
Cattle-Growers' Association in Chicago. He said: —
" If a solid column should be formed, twelve animals deep, one
end resting at New York City, its centre encircling San Francisco,
and its other arm reaching back to Boston, such a column v/ould con-
tain about the number which now forms the basis, the capital stock.
so to speak, of the cattle industry of the United States."
Mr. Carnegie says : *• Were the live stock upon Uncle Sam's
estate ranged five abreast, each animal estimated to occupy a space
five feet long, and marched round the world, the head and tail of the
procession would overlap. This was the host of 1880; that of 1885
would be ever so much greater, and still it grows day by day, and the
end of the growth no man can foretell."
On the average, if the live stock of our country were equally dis-
tributed, each family would have a horse, cow, four pigs, and three
sheep. It is claimed that the amount of capital invested in cows
exceeds by $40,000,000 the amount invested in bank stocks ! The
cattle, horses, sheep, and swine of the whole country represent a
capital of two billion five hundred million dollars ($2,500,000,000).
WHAT CATTLE EAT.
Throughout a very large portion of the New West cattle graze
through the whole year, requiring little more attention than herds of
buffalo. Without cut-feed or shelter they shirk for themselves, and
appear in the spring ** round up," in a good condition, unless an
exceptional cold and stormy winter has prevailed. ^The cut on the
following page represents the two principal kinds of grass upon which
cattle live and thrive between Missouri River and the foot-hills of the
Rocky Mountains.
These grasses may be called perennial ; for, springing up in the
early season when their roots are bathed in moisture, they cover the
great plains with -an olive-green, which the excessive heat of a rain-
less summer dries and cures as it stands, from six to twelve inches
high. The drying and curing process preserves the juices of the
grass, and when it goes to seed, by a remarkable provision of Provi-
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING.
539
dence the seed does not drop and waste, but it is held tightly to
nourish the animal kingdom so dependent upon it. All the nutri-
ment is thus preserved ; and this accounts for the excellent condition
of cattle that appear to relish these grasses full as much when they
are dry as when they are green. It is said that horses will leave the
fresher and greener grass of
the watercourse for this dried
and cured hay, which appears
innutritions and worthless to
the traveller. The buffalo
grass grows in bunches, as
seen in the illustration, and
both kinds stand up so stiffly
that they are never broken
down by the heaviest wind,
rain, or snow.
In the winter the tops of
the grass, containing the most
nutritious part, — the seeds, —
peer above the snow for the
particular accommodation of
cattle. Or if, perchance, the
snow is unusually deep, and
covers them, the cattle accom-
modate themselves readily to
the situation, and with nose
lay them bare and devour them.
Snow does not remain long
upon the ground in the graz-
ing country, so that if these
grasses were completely buried
in snow, ordinarily cattle would
not starve in waiting for its disappearance. In many localities, too,
they find sufficient feed on hillsides and other protected spots to
satisfy hunger while other localities remain buried in snow. The
cut on the next page represents a collection of Kansas grasses.
A traveller in Montana furnishes the following interesting remarks
respecting this remarkable bunch-grass : —
'' At first I supposed that the color was derived from the nature
of the soil, but I afterwards found out, by actually travelling over
them, that they were covered with a species of grass which, as it is
BUFFALO GRASS. 2. GRAMA GRASS.
(Half Natural Size.)
540
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
and adjoining States,
but
grows in
approached, has the appearance of ripe grain which has stood long
enough to lose its bright yellow color. This is the famous bunch-
grass of Montana and Dakota. It does not cover the ground like
the cultivated grasses of the East, or the blue grass of Kentucky
scattered bunches, so that,
although, seen from a little
distance, the ground appears
to be entirely covered with it,
it actually stands very thinly
over the surface. This bunch-
grass comes up in the spring
and gets its growth during
the rains of early summer.
Then, when the dry season
begins, the seed which it
bears upon the top ripens,
but instead of falling out, as
the seeds of most grasses
would do, is firmly held in
the head which encloses it,
and remains upon the stalk
until the following spring.
The stalk itself is strong and
wiry, containing an abun-
dance of silica, and is not
easily broken.
" When the cattle are turned
out upon a range covered with
bunch-grass, they browse off
the heads containing the
seeds, but do not eat the
leaves and stalk, which are as
destitute of nutrition as the
stalks of rye, barley, or wheat would be. But the seeds seem to have
concentrated in them all the elements fitted to furnish food for cattle
which the grass, during its short period of growth, has been able to
draw from the remarkably rich soil, and their fattening qualities are
said to be equal to those of the best grain. It is because the cattle
feed upon these seeds, rather than upon the leaves and stalks of
grass, that Montana beef is of so much better quality than that raised
in the Territories farther south."
KANSAS GRASSES.
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING.
541
CATTLE RANCH.
The first thing for the would-be stock-raiser to do is to secure a
ranch. In Colorado he would do this by buying out a stockman who
wants to sell, because all the government lands in that State are
taken up. In New Mexico he would probably purchase government
land, always selecting it where cattle can find plenty of water.
The following illustrations of homes on cattle ranches are the
actual representations of homes that now exist.
HOME ON A CATTLE RANCH.
The above illustration represents a house built of stone, and
belongs to the best class of ranchmen's homes. It contains two large
rooms and a loft, accommodations that are found upon few ranches
only. The cut on the following page represents a log house by no
means of the best class, and yet about the average dwelling of nmch-
cros, as herders are called in Mexico. Few women are found on
ranches, the necessary isolation and hardships being too masculine
for feminine tastes. Occasionally, however, the married ranchman
shares the privations of ranch life with his wife.
542
MARVELS OF THE AEPP' WEST.
Cowboys sometimes occupy dug-outs. A ranchman describes his
as follows : —
" It was now necessary to build some kind of a house, as the shan-
ties we had hitherto used would afford but poor protection against
the keen blasts of winter. The choice lay between a log-house and
m
- ^^^m
K- .- r.
y^^^^^ ■«
-^^ffe'''
'^^ - m
^afer.^-
^^^
g
■SHpl
jM
V^K
fn^ ----- -^^^fiiii„ ^'^
^^jpur^
?ii
^^^^^^^
^^^^'^^^^^^^H
i^i^dh
■ ''::^''''feja
=^^^1^(^11^;: -} 1 "W^ni -' -^ "aMrfrfcrf^tit ni ' ' '**'**'' ' ' '■*'^^ 1 ^n
^^
,:iM|a5
ijS^4%^^^^93|
^^^^HHS^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^SmBa^^^^^H
HHHi
^H
^^^^^M^^^^^^^^
HOME ON A CATTLE RANCH.
a dug-out ; and as it would be difficult to get straight logs enough
for the former, and it would take longer to build, and the weather
was already getting cold enough to make living out of doors not very
A DUG-OUT.
enjoyable, we decided to make a dug-out. A dug-out is constructed
by digging into a hill, which forms the back and sides of the dwell-
ing. The front is made of logs, and the roof of sticks, on which grass
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING.
543
DIAGRAM I.
Range 79 West.
NORTH.
SOfTH.
Range 79 West.
DIAGRAM 2.
Section I, Township 139 N.
Range 79 W.
NORTH.
or hay is laid, covered by a thick layer of earth. A fireplace and
flue are dug out at one side, and a chimney is carried above the roof
by means of some stones or sticks
plastered with mud. It is a primi-
tive kind of house. Ours was not
at all uncomfortable, and with a blaz-
ing log fire on the hearth, we knew
little what the weather was like out-
side."
If he buys his land of the United
States government, he finds an office
near at hand, where maps and charts
convince him that the method of com-
ing into possession of what he wants
is very plain and systematic.
The United States government
surveys the public lands into a suc-
cession of lines of townships running
north and south, parallel to each
other, and each line of townships is
numbered from the base line north-
ward, the two in Diagram i being
numbered, for example, 138 and 139
North, respectively.
Each of these lines of townships is
called a ''range," which number from
the meridian east or west. This
range, for example, is called Range
79 West.
Diagram i shows two townships, numbered
138 and 139 North, respectively, in Range No.
79 West. The parallel line of townships west
of Range 79 West would be numbered 138 and
139 North, respectively, in Range 80 West,
and so on.
Each township contains 36 sections, num-
bered as in Diagram i, or 23,040 acres. Each
section as shown in Diagram 2 (divided into
40-acre tracts), is one mile square, and contains ^°^™-
640 acres. Each section is divided into quarters, containing
acres each. Each quarter section contains 40 acres.
6
5
4
3
2
1
7
8
9
10
11
12
18
17
16
15
14
13
19
20
21
22
23
24
30
29
28
27
26
25
31
32
ZZ
34
y:^
36
6
5
4
3
2
1
7
8
9
10
11
12
18
17
16
15
14
13
24
25
19
20
21
22
23
30
29
28
27
26
31
32
33
34
35
36
160
544
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
In describing lands, for example, the northeast 40-acre tract in
Diagram 2, in section No. i, in township No. 139 N., in range No.
79 W., would be described as follows : N.E. \ of the N.E. \ of Sec-
tion I, T. 139 N., R. 79 W.
The price of government land is ^1.25 per acre, though millions
of acres which lie in sections alternate with railroad lands are held
at $2.50. The stockman usually buys the cheaper lands, unless he
"pre-empts" one hundred and sixty acres, or acquires a title to his
claim under the Homestead Law by living on it five years.
Cattle are not confined to the section or quarter-section, but roam
at pleasure over the range from November to May, when the round-
up begins. A Colorado stockman informed me a few years since,
HERD ON THE RANGE.
that, at the previous round-up, some of his cattle were found one
hundred and fifty miles east of his ranch, one hundred miles west
and south. Different herds mingle on the range, of course, making
the annual round-up a necessity, that each stockman may find and
possess his own. The round-up will be described hereafter.
Many stockmen do not live on their ranches. Cowboys take
charge of the ranches, looking after the few horses, cows, and hens,
which are kept thereon for immediate use. ♦ One cowboy can take
care of a ranch ordinarily, from November to May, when the herd is
wandering over the range for food. A pretty lonely time is his, too,
spending six months in solitary house-keeping, with no neighbor, per-
haps, within ten or twenty miles, and no post-office within twenty-
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING.
545
five or fifty miles. An occasional visit from the proprietor, bringing
supplies and such advice as the circumstances require, breaks the
monotony of the lonely and somewhat singular life.
This illustration is not a fancy sketch. It is the photograph of a
stockman, taken when he was mounted and ready to start for his
ranch a few score of miles away. Wearing " half an acre of hat " to
protect his face from the hot sun, with a scarf about his neck for a
like purpose, and
his apparel well
adapted to his bus-
iness, his appear-
ance is so changed
that an introduc-
tion to his own
wife may be quite
necessary. He may
be a millionnaire,
though he looks
like a shack. He
may be as proud as
Lucifer, but neces-
sity arrays him in
a homely dress ;
and he appears
humble. Seated
upon a Mexican
saddle, which cost
a hundred dollars,
if it is a good one,
and drawing up the
reins of a bridle
that cost twenty-five or fifty more, if it is worthy of an aspiring stock-
man, he puts spurs to his horse, and is off in a jiffy. Grass does not
grow under his horse's feet. The animal is trained to the saddle, and
the stockman is trained to him, and the two are so trained together,
that they fly over the plain as if they were one thing, as much as the
two parts of a whole. It is a lonely ride to his ranch, forty, fifty,
sixty, perhaps a hundred miles away ; but his head is full of business
and his heart of contentment — about the happiest looking man,
though he may be the homeliest, to be found within cattledom. If he
happens to pass a prairie post-office, the unique affair serves to remind
OFF FOR THE RANCH.
546
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
PRAIRIE POST-OFFICE
him that humans do live in the
''silent and solemn country"
through which he is passing.
When calling attention to
the cowboy's home on the
ranch, we should have said that
many of these abodes are loca-
ted where various poisonous
creatures infest the country, as
rattlesnakes, scorpions, tarantu-
las, and centipedes. On the
shelf before me is a bottle of
alcohol containing a scorpion
and centipede which a stockman
captured in his cabin and pre-
sented to me. He exhibited,
also, the skin of an enormous
rattlesnake, four and a half feet
long ; and his snakeship was
caught just outside of his adobe
cabin. And yet it is seldom
that serious results transpire from the intimacy which these denizens
of the Rocky Mountain region try to cultivate with ranch-life fami-
lies. We think, however, that even cowboys will agree with us, that
their room is better than their company.
A ranchman writes of rattlesnakes : *' The rattlesnakes were
mostly of a small species, and I used to kill one or two nearly every
day during the summer. I once killed ten in three hours, not look-
ing for them, but just getting off my horse when I heard one rattle,
and destroying it. I generally killed them with my * quist,' which is
a kind of riding-whip, about eighteen inches long, made of raw hide
and leather plaited together, with a piece of iron in the handle.
A snake cannot strike unless it first coils itself up, so you can hit
it when it is gliding off, with even a short weapon, without fear of
the consequences. The dogs used occasionally to get bitten by rat-
tlesnakes, but they always recovered in. a day or two, without any treat-
ment ; and one of my horses was once bitten right on the nose. His
head swelled up tremendously, and he could not eat for two or three
days, but he ultimately recovered. When a man gets bitten, the cure
chiefly relied on in the States is copious doses of whiskey, on the
principle, I suppose, of similia similibus curantur."
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING.
547
Below is the castle of the tarantula — a remarkable little nest,
with its bevel-edged and closely-fitting door. It is built by the
female, her husband possessing no talent or inclination in that direc-
tion. He is fierce and warlike, ever ready to kill his foe with his
deadly poison. The female is shy, and stays at home to look after
her family, with closed door
when she is within her castle.
On leaving her nest, the door
is thrown wide open, and re-
mains in that position until her
return. At the approach of
danger, she springs into her
castle at a bound and closes the
door behind her. The taran-
tula is venomous, and there are
many of them in California,
Colorado, Arizona, and New
Mexico.
Cattle are obliged to seek
water for themselves as well as
food. Hence the stockman
looks for a well-watered ranch.
It is not always possible to
have all the water facilities de-
sired, so that cattle must travel
quite a distance, sometimes, to quench their thirst. If they have to
travel two or three miles for water, they will drink only once in two
or three days. They excel men and women in adapting themselves
to circumstances. They understand the laws of storms full as well
as scientists, and govern themselves accordingly. They surpass
** Probabilities " in forecasting the weather, and know when a storm
is actually approaching, as well as we who take and read the papers.
For this reason they thrive and grow when we think they would
starve, and live when we wonder they do not perish.
The profits of stock-raising are marvellous. For this reason, men
endure hardships and brave dangers, dwelling apart from friends and
civilized society. The prospect of speedy fortunes reconciles them
to privations for the time being.
We shall furnish the estimates of several reliable authorities,
showing amount of capital invested, and the actual profits in a series
of years.
TARANTULA NEST.
548
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
A Dakota editor says that men unacquainted with the cattle busi-
ness do not realize how rapidly cattle multiply when all the female
progeny are allowed to breed. And he goes on to say :
** If one hundred cows and their female progeny be kept at breed-
ing for ten years, the result would be as follows, estimating that forty
per cent of the cows would have heifers which would, beginning when
two years old, in their turn have
loo cows in first year drop .
lOO cows in second year drop
140 cows in third year drop
180 cows in fourth year drop
236 cows in fifth year drop .
308 cows in sixth year drop
40
40
56
72
94
123
402 cows in seventh year drop . . .161
525 cows in eighth year drop .... 210
686 cows in ninth year drop .... 274
896 cows in tenth year drop .... 358
Total, ten years 1,428
CATTLE SEEKING WATER.
*' The number of bulls would be the same as that of heifers. From
the above an idea can be got of the rate at which capital increases in
the live-stock business on the plains, where the cost of keeping a beef
from birth to maturity is less than six dollars."
In Harper s Monthly of November, 1879, A. A. Hayes, Jr., who
wrote after careful personal observation, follows some valuable sug-
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING, 549
gestions with an estimate of his own, which cannot be said to be
rose-colored : —
*' I. What amount of capital is needed ?
" It would hardly be advisable to begin an independent business
with less than five thousand doHars, of which three thousand w^ould
be invested in stock. It is common for men employed by owners to
have a few cattle of their own, which range with their employers', and
in this way they sometimes get quite a little property together, and
are enabled to start on their own account. On the other hand, the
profits on a large herd increase in a greater ratio than the expenses,
and the figures to be given herein will be based on an investment
large enough to secure this benefit.
*' 2. What profits may be expected in the stock business }
"The following may be pronounced a fair and reasonable com-
mercial estimate, and it is put forward with only the remark that
while the figures apply to circumstances as they are now, and there
are chances and contingencies and possible disasters attending
money-making adventures of all kinds, the margin here is so large
that after making all allowances which caution may suggest, one has
still the promise of great results.
We will suppose an individual or a firm to have found a ranch
to suit him or them in Southern Colorado, and to have bought
it. The cost is hard to fix; but one of 10,000 acres, in com-
plete order, could not stand in at more than ^50,000
A herd of 4,000 good cows could be bought at $18 each, or . 72,000
And 80 good short-horn and Hereford bulls at an average of
$50 each, or 4,000
Making a total investment of ^126,000
By careful buying in the spring one should get 70 per cent of
calves with the cows, or say 2,800 calves. Of these, on the
average, one-half, or 1,400, will be heifer calves. At the end .
of the first year affairs should stand as follows: —
The 1,400 heifer calves will be yearlings, and worth .... $14,000
There will be also 1,400 yearling steers, worth ^10 each, or . . 14,000 $28,000
With a herd of this size expenses may be put at not more than $5,000
And for contingencies, sundries, and ordinary losses it is safe
to take 4 per cent on capital invested in stock, say on
$76,000 3,040 8,040
Profit at end of first year $l9,9(.c
At the end of the second year the 1,400 heifers are two years
old, and worth $5 more apiece, or say $7,000
And of the 2,800 (70 per cent of 4,000) new yearling calves,
an average of one-half, or 1,400, will be heifers, and worth
$10 each, or 14,000
550 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
1,400 two-year-old steers are worth an additional ^6 each, or . ^8,400
And the 1,400 new yearnngs are worth ^10 each, or ... . 14,000 $43,400
Deduct expenses $5,000
And 4 per cent on $76,000 + $19,960 =$95,960 3,838 8,838 $34,562
At the end of the third year the original 1,400 heifers are three
years old, and worth an additional $3 per head, or ... . $4,200
The yearling heifers of last year are two years old, and worth
an additional $5 each, or 7,000
There are 1,400 yearlings from the original stock, \\'orth . . 14,000
And of the offspring of the three-year-olds (70 per cent of 1,400
= 980) one-half, or 490, are heifers, and worth 4,900
The original 1,400 steers are three years old, and worth an ad-
ditional $10 each, or 14,000
The 1,400 steer calves of last year are two years old, and worth
an additional $6 each, or 8,400
And there are 1,400 yearlings, offspring of original stock, and
490, offspring of new three-year-olds — in all, 1,890 — at $10
each 18,900 $71,400
Deduct expenses on 5,400 cows, say $6,050
And 4 per cent on ($95,960 -f- $34,562) $130,522 5,221 11,271
Profits at end of third year 60,129
Total net profits for three years $114,651
*' I. No allowance need be made for depreciation of stock, as the
cattle can with proper care always be sold for beef.
'' 2. If the profits be invested in cattle, they will be largely in-
creased.
*' 3. No account is taken of interest on profits.
" 4. No account is taken of the gradual improvement in the qual-
ity of the stock.
" 5. Profit can often be made by buying cattle and keeping them
for a year.
" 6. During the latter part of the winter and the spring the food
is of course poorer than before, and as the cattle are not then in the
best condition, there is much demand for good beef for local con-
sumption. By feeding cattle during those months for sale in Colo-
rado, excellent gains should be realized. Good beef on the hoof wdiS
worth four and a quarter cents per pound in Pueblo in the spring of
1879.
" 7. A ranch purchased in Southern Colorado at present prices is
almost sure, in view of the great increase in the business and the
decrease of suitable land, to appreciate considerably in value — say,
at least ten per cent per annum.
" It will be plain to any one who will examine carefully into the
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. 55 I
matter that under ordinary and favorable circumstances profits will
mount up each year in an increasing ratio, and he can readily make
figures for himself. In the mean time we have a balance-sheet at the
end of the third year as follows : —
Assets.
Ranch, with three years' appreciation, at lo per cent ;^65,ooo
5,400 cows, at $18 97,200
80 bulls, at ^50 4,000
1,400 two-year-old heifers, at $15 21,000
1,890 yearling heifers, at $\o 18,900
1,400 three-year-old steers, ^26 36,400
1,400 two-year-old steers, $16 22,400
1,890 yearling steers, at ^10 18,900
Total . $283,800
Liabilities.
Capital put in ranch $50,000
Capital put in stock . 76,000
Capital used in expenses 28,149
Profits on stock, three years $114,651
Profits on ranch 15,000 $129,651
Total •. . . . $283,800
"A risk to be taken into account would be a possible outbreak of
disease at some time, but out of profits as shown an insurance fund
could readily be created. That so many cattle will be raised that
prices will greatly fall need not be a matter of present fear ; for,
leaving out two most important factors, — the great and increasing
demand for our beef in Europe, and the new uses to which it is put
in this country, — our population has hitherto increased faster than
the supply of good meat."
The last paragraph may require some modification, since there has
been quite a depression in the cattle business of late. However, the
following table will furnish a reliable basis for present estimates ; for
it is still true, that England's demand for American beef is constantly
increasing, while the home demand is necessarily greater from year
to year in consequence of the rapid growth of population. Stock-
raising has its booms as other kinds of business have, and doubtless
it will continue to have them in the future from various causes, some
of which may not be well understood.
Frank Fossett, in his "History of Colorado," has the following
estimate : —
552
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
00
VO
,
c^.
8 I
D 0 0 0
^
00 Q
M 0
00
8 8^^^
0
00
rt
N 0
w «-o
D rj T^ -^
0
^"•^
00
r4
rj-
LO On
-C " «
CO »
0 ro 00 vO
N
0 0
ro
0 0 r^^ oo_^ -^
N
0
0
Os r^
^:5-^
^-rT^
00~ 00 O « ^0
ON
00 M
0
«'■ «" 00" -^ 0"
Ch
00'
"^
0" -^
« O u
1 M C) Tj- lO lO
^
ro r-.
0
IM
tJ- rj- u-> t^ vO
'^
ro
VD
r^ u-i
- -yi ?^
^&5t
ro
^
CO
t^ rs
« £ a
«9i
«9=
=99=
>S
>s
p%
>.
S:5V
^2^-
-c
!l
^P
rt t.
ri
8 8 S ^ .
16,000
16,000
22,400
28,800
w
T3 U ii
is-
j CO oo t^ vO
{ rf '^ ^"^ 00'~ •
• •
S ^2
;
•
:i^~
^
«-a .
v-a •
• V S
= — -a
3-7; T3
5 i
1""^
8,000
8,ooo
I,200
4,400
8,880
"re "
>2^
8 8 ^cg ^
• i^ 0
: :
1-R
lit
cf\ Cn (^ tA m"
;
is*
^
^ « « (S
•il
J)
a:
o
F - 1)
■5
3
Pi
Hi
2 2 2 S 9
00000
vtT vo" cs" Oc' r^
On J= •
111
u- a.
3 03 -,
8 8 8 8^
0^ 0^ -"^ 00 t^
0 vO~ N 00 t^
eg
H M f^ <■<-)
Tf
H « 2
> ^«3-
w i_ M C) ro
t}-
. • • 4J .
«^ ■
^
s. -is
^
>.
'-'
n
t/i Z >-
^ g • g c
•" y "* _
Q 0 0 0 0
0 0 T}- 00 r-.
00
11
3 S3
8 8 ^cg^
00
00 r4 00 r>*
On
■^ :
vO 0 C4 00 r^
0
r rT rT to
rf
0
« « ci rT r^
rf
0 u • 1) c
Z"3
;2;^
K
O)
"o
0 . u 2 I*
• — ^ -d *-. 1
J^
0 Q 0 0 ^»
0 0 C<3 vO u-1
0 • S . g
1^
M^ M "t r^ "C ^
00
• 0 _5 ' .5 -
fO ro "^ i^ I-^
cf;
rT
5 -^ ^ -^ «J
^gy S'o
bX) ^ . U3 </)
II
0 0 0 Q 0
0 Q 0 0 '^
Ti- Tt vn i^ Cn
cT
1:
0
1
1
0 cows, costin
th year alone
1 of $500,000.
head of steer
le the expense
*
iz;
ft c « _ r;
5 (u .Ti y -^ 1
dp^m
Ui^l
5
S,iS§l
00
C iT^ ro P
(U <£ ■S _ ?
' <
^6<S=
•
?; S c s 1;
<
^ h 0 e S
; uj
rt
>
t in
r inc
:ent
so, f
I alo
>
t«~
w 0 ^ -^ c:
0
=^ ,^ 1- " « 1
U
X! S !_ -^ 1
,
■
0 -S ex rt ■" 1
"rt
^ 0 ^ o .c \
CU W >> >^ 0
a; c
C 5
11.1
><
V p ^ ^ V
S 5: J= 0 .^
X
even
otal
he p
ir hft
;ach
whi
C
h
H ^
ti
c^
cr
6
0 H H fe fe
X
in
H
HOW 1
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. 553
His estimate is for seven years, because a herd is supposed to
double in that period. Cattlemen say a herd will double in seven
years by natural increase, and during that time enough beef will be
sold out of it to pay the expense of running it, and nearly enough
more in addition, to cover the original investment. One-twelfth part
of a herd is sold for beef annually ; and the annual yield of calves
will amount to about one-fourth the number of animals in the whole
herd. That is, a herd of one thousand animals will amount to two
thousand in about seven years. The calves would number about two
hundred and fifty the first year, increasing from year to year as the
herd grows. The number of cattle sold for beef the first year would
be one-twelfth of one thousand, or eighty-three ; and this number
will increase from year to year. In this way stockmen estimate
their material prosperity on paper ; but sometimes the paper loses its
value by the severity of an unusual winter, the prevalence of cattle
disease, or the ravages of grasshoppers. Four-fifths of a herd of
cows will bring the owner a calf annually until the cows are twelve
years old, if kept so long. A single cow is the mother of one calf at
three years of age. At four, she has two, the first a yearling. At
five, she is the mother of three calves, the oldest two years. When
the mother is six, she has four children and one grandchild, her
oldest calf becoming a mother herself. At seven, she has five chil-
dren, and three grandchildren ; for the oldest daughter has her
second calf, and the next daughter in age has her first calf. At
eight, the grandmother has six children, six grandchildren, and one
great-grandchild — the whole family numbering fourteen ; for her
oldest calf has her third calf, the next in age her second, and the
third in age her first, and the first grandcalf has a calf also. At nine,
the original cow has seven children, ten grandchildren, and three
great-grandchildren ; for her oldest calf has her fourth, the second
in age her third, the third in age her second, and the fourth in age
her first ; and the first grandcalf has her second offspring, and the
second grandcalf her first. There are twenty in the family now.
At ten, the original cow has eight children, fifteen grandchildren,
and six great-grandchildren ; for her oldest calf has her fifth, the
second in age her fourth, the third in age her third, the fourth in age
her second, and the fifth in age her first ; and the first grandcalf has
her third offspring, the second her second, and the third her first —
twenty-nine in all. At eleven, the cow has nine children, twenty-
one grandchildren, ten great-grandchildren, and one great-great-
grandcalf ; for her oldest calf has her sixth calf, the next her fifth,
554 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
the next her fourth, the next her third, the next her second, and the
next her first ; and the first grandcalf has her fourth, the next her
third, the next her second, and the next her first ; and, also, the first
great-grandcalf has her first, the fifth generation. Now the family
numbers forty-one. At twelve, the maternal ancestor has ten chil-
dren, twenty-eight grandchildren, fifteen great-grandchildren, and
three great-great-grandchildren ; for her first calf has her seventh,
the next her sixth, the next her fifth, the next her fourth, the next
her third, the next her second, and the next her first ; and the first
grandcalf has her fifth, the next her fourth, the next her third, the
next her second, and the next her first ; also, the first great-grand-
calf has her second, and the next her first — a family of fifty-six.
Five generations, — ten of the second, twenty-eight of the third,
fifteen of the fourth, and three of the fifth. By this time the mission
of the original cow ought to be considered accomplished, and she be
allowed to die a natural death, if she will, although it is more proba-
ble that, after making herself the source of such a marvellous income
to her owner, she will close her earthly career in some busy mining
camp where canned corned beef is reckoned as the staff of life.
There is one serious trouble, however, with the foregoing figures.
The estimate is based upon the supposition that the cow's progeny
are all females. To this date, however, by no artifice or persuasion,
have stockmen been able to make their cows bring them all heifers.
We have no doubt that they would if they could. This is one of the
few things in which cattlemen have been baffled ; their cows will
bring forth about one-half males, in spite of any coaxing, fixing, or
blaspheming. Nevertheless, the foregoing estimate will serve a good
purpose, without reflecting at all upon the cow ; for, after making
due allowance for her male progeny, her family will number about
thirty when she is twelve years old ; and this ought to satisfy reason-
able stockmen, since five thousand cows could show, even at this rate,
one hundred and twenty thousand animals in twelve years, though
but four-fifths of their number become mothers, provided none die,
or are killed. At twenty-five dollars per head, this number would
bring three million dollars. The original investment for five thou-
sand cows would not vary much either way from one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars.
The Commissioner of Immigration, Whigham, of Colfax County,
New Mexico, published the following statement in 1883 : —
'' The principal industry of the county at present is raising cattle
and sheep. The grazing lands of Colfax County are justly cele-
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. 555
brated, and are unrivalled in any section of the Rocky Mountains.
No business has proved a more lucrative one here than stock-raising.
There are in Colfax at present, it is estimated, seventy-five thousand
head of cattle, two hundred thousand head of sheep, and seven thou-
sand head of horses and brood mares. The following table will not
be out of place, as not only giving an estimate of the profits in the
cattle business here, — and it is indorsed by cattlemen hereabouts as
a fair exhibit, — but will also give current prices of common stock,
with which it starts, and the price of the improved also.
"■ Let us say the stock-raiser makes a purchase in September of
a herd composed of the following grade and class : —
Capital Invested in Stock,
150 young cows and calves, at ^25 ^2,250
100 two-year-old heifers, at ^12 1,200
100 two-year-old steers, at $\2 1,200
75 yearling heifers, at ^7 525
75 yearling steers, at ^7 525
10 high grade bulls, at ^75 750
S6,450
Capital Invested in Ranch, etc.
Ranch, corrals, etc ^250
Horses and equipments 250
$500
Summary Account for Five Years.
END OF YEAR.
NO. OF STOCK.
VALUE.
SALES THREE-YEAR-OLD STEERS.
EXPENSES.
BANK ACCT.
First
Second . . .
Third ....
Fourth ....
Fifth
1,063
1,321
^7,140.00
8,465.00
11,200.00
14,620.00
18,477.50
100 at ^18.00 = ^1,800.00
75 at 18.00= 1,350.00
60 at 18.00= 1,080.00
100 at 22.50= 2,250.00
130 at 22.50= 2,925.00
^680
850
1,100
.,500
^1,120
600
230
1,150
1,425
Total ....
...
$4,525
Value of stock $18,477.50
Value of ranches, horses, etc 1,000.00
Bank account 4,525.00
$24,002.50
Capital invested 6,950.00
Profit in five years ..... o $17,052.50
556 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
'' In the above table we have added five hundred dollars to the
value of the ranch, horses, etc., at the end of the five years, which is
a low estimate of the money charged to * expenses ' which went for
the purchase of additional horses. The increase of cattle has been
reckoned at eighty-five per cent, allowing five per cent of loss from
natural causes in young stock. The improvement in stock bred from
fine bulls has been reckoned at twenty-five per cent."
We met a merchant from Illinois in Southern Colorado who had
made an annual visit there for eight successive years. He told me
that he saw such a margin for profits in the cattle business on his
first visit that he invested all the money he had laid by, though
it was but eight hundred dollars. He found a reliable man, engaged
in the business in a small way, and entered into partnership with
him, with the understanding that he should continue his business in
Illinois, making a visit annually to Colorado. ''I have just sold out
my interest in the herd to my partner for ten thousand dollars,"
said he, perfectly satisfied with his venture, as he ought to have
been. His partner had run the herd, performed all the work ; and
his investment of eight hundred dollars had grown to ten thousand,
while he was trading, eating, and sleeping in Illinois.
On my way home I made the acquaintance of a Massachusetts
man, who had become a stock-grower in Nebraska. His story was
substantially as follows : " I was a manufacturer in Massachusetts,
and four years ago broke down by overwork. My physician gave
me no hope of recovery, unless I would give up business, and go
West. I sold out everything, and removed to Nebraska, with no
intention of doing any business. I had plenty of money, so that I
was under no necessity to accumulate more. But I saw at once the
profits of cattle-raising, and that the business would oblige me to be
in the open air — the best thing for my health. Also I had a rare
opportunity to buy out a stockman at low figures, and I embraced
it, starting: out with a herd of about four thousand. The next season
I went to Oregon and purchased five thousand herd, and drove them
over the country to my ranch. When they joined my herd at home
they were worth double what I paid for them in Oregon. At that
time I had invested about one hundred and ten thousand dollars.
One month ago," he continued (which was October, 1883), "I was
offered three hundred thousand dollars for my herd in cash, and I
refused it. I would not sell the herd for five hundred thousand dol-
lars, because in ten years, and in less time than that, it will be worth
a million."
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. 557
A Massachusetts man, whom the writer knows well, bought a
ranch four years ago in Wyoming for which he paid two hundred and
thirty thousand dollars, — a very low figure for the size of the herd, —
but peculiar circumstances forced the sale. There were twelve thou-
sand cattle and seven hundred horses, with etceteras, on the ranch.
The purchase was made in early summer, and in December follow-
ing we met the owner in Boston, and inquired after his ranch busi-
ness. He replied : " In October I sold my beef, and since that six
thousand head of cattle, the whole amounting to one hundred and
eighty thousand dollars. I have six thousand head of cattle and
seven hundred horses left, which are worth at least what I paid for
the ranch in the first place."
Capitalists of England and Scotland are largely interested in
American stock-raising, especially in the New West. It is claimed
that in 1882 they invested thirty million dollars in this industry in
our country. Taking advantage of our liberal legislation, they have
come into possession of immense tracts of land, so that it became
necessary to impose barriers to this method of gobbling up our coun-
try ; and recent legislation has put a stop to this wholesale posses-
sion by aliens.
A Scotchman, J. S. Tait, has recently issued a small volume,
"The Cattle-Fields of the Far West" ; and it may be profitable to
learn his estimate of the cattle business. The reader will easily
understand his figures by remembering that a pound of English
money is equal to five dollars, and a shilling to twenty-five cents in
American currency. Mr. Tait says : —
'' Under the most onerous of the conditions named, and where the
entire pasture has to be purchased at ten shillings per acre, the
profits of the cattle trade are quite beyond parallel. In the case
of a good-sized herd they may be briefly indicated thus : —
A yearling high grade steer or bullock, costing £'},, would realize
at the end of the fourth year, that is, within three years of its
purchase ;i^8 o o
Less prime cost £2^ o o
Less cost of maintenance for three years (expenses all told), at
5^ per annum 0150
Less three years' interest on cost of five acres of good land ... 076
Less percentage of loss for three years at five per cent per annum
(a high estimate) 0176
500
Leaving a net gain for the three years of £>Z o o
Equivalent to '^iVi per cent per annum on the original outlay.
To this must be added the growth in the value of the land
558 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
(which it might certainly be expected would double in value in
the same period), equal to a further 33)^ per cent per annum,
or 66 1/^ in all on the average of years.
" Turning to the female cattle : —
A yearling high grade heifer costing ;^3, would, at the end of its
seventh year, realize as a fattened cow ;^6 o o
And would have saved four calves, valued at £2 each 800
£^^ o o
Less prime cost LZ o ^
Less cost of maintenance as above for six years at 5^ per annum . i 10 o
Less interest on land, six years 0150
Less percentage of loss for six years at 7>^ per cent per annum
(a very high estimate), but the loss is somewhat greater in fe-
male cattle 296
7 14 6
Net gain for six years ;^6 5 6
Equivalent to an annual dividend of 333^ per cent on original
outlay, or, including growth in value of land as computed
above, 66}^ per cent for the year.
He adds : *' This is not the most lucrative aspect of the cattle
question, but it is the simplest way of ascertaining the minimum of
what a cattle investment will achieve where the herd is of sufficient
size and the land owned.
" When the cattle are steadily graded up, still greater results will
be attained ; and where, in addition, the agricultural capabilities of
the soil are utilized to winter-feed the fat steers intended for the
early market, this business will readily pay from fifty to sixty per
cent per annum, from the cattle alone, in addition to the accumu-
lating value in its land.
'' And these immense returns, it will be borne in mind, are
reckoned on the entire capital, unrelieved by debentures, the issue
of which would, of course, increase the dividend very materially."
Mr. P. continues : —
" The Hon. Moreton E. Post, member of Congress, and banker,
Cheyenne, informed the writer that Mr. Searight of Wyoming had
invested ^£30,000 in the cattle business of that Territory in 1879, and
having taken no money out of the business, nor, on the other hand,
put any in since, the property in the fall of 1882 was worth ;£300,ooo.
The latter valuation the writer knows to be correct, from having
handled the property ; and as Mr. Post was Searight's banker, he
may be relied upon as being correct with regard to the amount
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. 559
originally put in. The owner confirmed the statement. Colonel
Slaughter, President of the First National Bank of Dallas, Texas,
considered one of the best authorities on the cattle trade in that
State, has made a similar sum (;^300,ooo) in the business, and he
has not yet reached middle life.
" Mr. Charles Goodnight (Goodnight %l Adair) the Pioneer of
the Panhandle, has made (without any original capital of his own)
^120,000 in ten years. His partner, Mr. Adair of Rathdairs,
Ireland, a gentleman well known in this country, has put from
£,"j2,ooo to ^74,000 into the cattle business in Texas during the last
six or seven years, and has taken out from ;^ 12,000 to ;£" 14,000.
The ;£6o,ooo representing the balance of his money left in, is now
worth ;£6oo,ooo.
" Many more striking instances of great wealth rapidly achieved
in the stock-raising industry could be adduced ; but, as already
explained, the writer is careful to restrict himself to statements
which can be readily investigated and confirmed. Messrs. Post,
Searight, Slaughter, Goodnight, and Adair may be surpassed in
wealth by many of the cattle kings, but they have no superiors
in standing and probity ; and the facts quoted can quickly be tested
by inquiry of any of the cattle salesmen of Chicago, St. Louis, or
Kansas City.
" Nor is such prosperity at all abnormal in the cattle trade.
Without a moment's hesitation, the writer could name at least two
hundred men, with whom he is personally acquainted, who have
achieved their twenty, fifty, one hundred, two hundred thousand
pounds, and upwards, in this business — starting with nothing what-
ever of their own, and founding their fortunes originally on the
permission granted by their employer to run a few cattle with the
herd they managed for him. The cattle towns of America — or
towns practically sustained by that industry — are, per head of
population, the wealthiest in the world."
Some of the cattle companies operate on a grand scale. A short
review of the property of the Prairie Cattle Company, organized with
Scotch capital, will give an idea of this. The company's territory
lies in three divisions. The first, called the Arkansas, or northern,
division, extends from the Arkansas River in Colorado on the north,
to the line of Colorado and New Mexico on the south, — 70 miles, —
and 60 miles east and west, making a territory of 3,500 square miles,
or 2,240,000 acres. There are 53,982 cattle on this range, and 300
560 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
horses are used by the cowboys who manage the herd. The value
of the land, ^163,992 ; of cattle, $1,705,000; total, $1,791,492.
The second, called the Cimmarron, or Central division, lies in the
northern part of New Mexico, extending 84 miles from the Colorado
line to the southern line of Mora County, and 48 miles from Sierra
Grand on the west to the Texas line on the east, an area of 4,032
square miles, or 2,580,480 acres. The worth of the land is estimated
at $235,545 ; the number of cattle is 57,799, and their worth $1,444,-
975. The whole value is put at $1,753,920. The management requires
500 horses. This division is the seat of the company's general head-
quarters, and the greater part of the southern rounding-up is man-
aged from here. A telephone line 150 miles long connects the gen-
eral headquarters with those of the Northern division.
The Canadian or Southern division is on the Canadian River, in
the Panhandle of Texas, in Potter and Oldham counties, the greatest
length and breadth being 25 and 16 miles respectively, and the area
is 400 square miles, or 256,000 acres. The land is not so good as
that of the other divisions, and its cost was 60 cents an acre. The
value of the 29,803 cattle is $715,272, and of the 200 horses $8,000,
making the entire property worth $771,072. The total value of the
three properties, whose joint area is larger than that of Massachusetts,
is set at $4,416,484. The company began business with 104,000
cattle, and in two years the number had increased to 139,000, the
profits in the meantime making a dividend of $50,000 in 1881, and
$250,000 in 1882, in which year about 26,000 calves were branded.
In the Northwest, one of the largest companies is the Powder
River of Wyoming, with a capital stock of $1,500,000. It includes
among its directors the Duke of Manchester and Lord Henry Neville.
The Marquis de Mores, a French nobleman, has a large ranch on the
Little Missouri River in Montana, and there he is instituting a new
departure in the shape of a slaughtering establishment, killing 80
beeves, or two carloads of dressed meat, a day. The Northern Pacific
Refrigerator Car Company, organized in St. Paul with a capital of
$200,000, has a ten years' contract with the Northern Pacific Railway,
and transports the meat from this place. It is believed that eventually
all cattle ready to kill will be slaughtered at the nearest point to the
ranches on the railway lines, and the meat shipped East by refrigerator
cars, thus saving the greater expense of transporting live stock and
the loss on shrinkage, as has already become general with the beef
supply from Chicago eastward.
There are larger ranches than the above, it is true. The largest
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING.
561
ranch in the world is near San Antonio, Texas, and was sold by
Colonel King, of that state, to a London syndicate, for $4,000,000.
A Chicago syndicate, of which C. B. Farwell is a member, own a
ranch of 300,000 acres in Texas. The famous Maxwell grant in
New Mexico is leased for 38 years by the Maxwell Cattle Company,
with a capital of $1,000,000. The ranch contains 1,400,000 acres,
and has a capacity of sustaining 80,000 cattle.
THE COWBOY.
The cowboy plays such an important part in the cattle business
that we stop here to tell the reader about him. You have heard
much about him, but little that is true. So incorrect are the repre-
sentations of him in the
Eastern States that the
reader will be surprised
to learn from the photo-
graph that the cowboy is
a member of the human
family.
We assure the reader
that this is a photograph
of a real cowboy, whom we
have seen and conversed
with, and from whom wt-
begged the photo. He
has been in the business
since he was twelve years
of age, and, of course, is a
veteran cowboy altfiough
he is not over thirty years
old. He has lived most
of his life just outside of
civilization, and scoured
the ** Great Plains," and
penetrated the Rockies,
so thoroughly, that he is
more at home there than
he is in Denver or Greeley.
A COWBOY.
He IS a real dare-devil on the round-
up, and the wildest broncho cannot run faster than he can ride. He
sticks to his back, too, except when the flying brute stumbles when on
562
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
the dead run ; and then, of course, he falls with him. In this way he
has learned what it is to have a broken arm, a dislocated shoulder,
fractured ribs, sprained ankles, and bruises without number ; but he
was easily mended, and is now as good as new. He has been picked
up for dead several times, when horse and rider went down together
in their chase after a wild steer ; and no one could tell why he was
not killed, except that his time had not come. And yet this daring
cov/boy, so familiar with 'Mife on the plains," his life as wild as the
cattle which he herded, actually went into a civilized community,
courted and married a modest, good girl, and established a home.
If her ideas of a
cowboy, and those
of her neighbors,
had been like those
of many Eastern
people, she would
have run away
from him when he
went to make love,
expecting a bullet
from a revolver,
instead of an arrow
from Cupid. The
photograph shows
him, of course, as
he appears at home
in citizen's dress.
This cut repre-
sents a cowboy
starting for the
range, equipped for the service, his lariat hanging upon the horn of
his saddle.
People in the New West laugh at the prevalent ideas of the cow-
boy in the East. When a town is sacked, or a railroad train robbed
by masked men, it is heralded throughout the Eastern States as the
crime of cowboys, when more likely a gang of professionals from
New York or Chicago perpetrated the deed. That there are bad
cowboys must be admitted ; but, as a class, they are not the desper-
adoes and cut-throats which many Eastern papers represent them to
be. We have seen cowboys who were educated in the best ware-
houses of Boston, and were told of others who were graduated at
f
:,:::,::::^:::;. „■-:■,■„:■■■::■■:■: > . .,
^^>
1/
#
'•
(llll
AtfL C5.*-' "V
-jPHyiB^^Ml
«!,,
^^^^^^^^^^HKiPii
£" ^
^^^^HH^I^II^^^^ralil
S- .^fl
BB|^^^f^;^^|^9P^
l^^H
^ ^ir^Z-"' .
'■
^
^i^H
^K/t ^^ ^WIKKmBKMH
^^■.
rflu'
I^^E- ^^Vilmin
^■^^Hr
-' -'^
g^B»^B^=S5s = - '/fF^
■^^I^B
gBHR^^^^^^^ss=^ ' I^^
> r^
^^^Hl
tf^'^^^S^^g^ - a^.
-:-'?i:i
^^^HRk
^g \^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ss_~. «*"^
^'^^
1^
^7*^^^^^^
' ,^V ^
COWBOY OFF FOR THE RANGE.
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. 563
Harvard and Yale. They were in search of health, and engaged
in this business, first, for health, and, second, for a fortune. That
we may not be charged with giving a rose-colored view of this class,
we call attention to the sentiments of others, whose opportunities of
personal observation have been far better than ours.
The editor of the West Shore ^ published at Portland, Ore., has
the following : —
''The idea entertained of the cowboy by the Eastern public is as
erroneous as it is possible to be. The cowboys, as a class, are a
brave, intelligent, honorable, kind-hearted, and cool-headed class of
men. In their ranks will be found college graduates, sons of many
of the first families of the East, men worth their thousands in their
own right, scions of nobility from Europe, and natives of the plains
and mountains, the last, of course, by far the most numerous. That
their life of freedom from restraint should develop certain wild traits
of character, or that among them should drift an occasional refugee
from justice, is not surprising ; but such a recruit must behave him-
self like a man, and should he commit any outrage or crime, his com-
panions would be the first to see that he was properly punished.
They have no great love for Indians, nor, for that matter, has any
man who has been brought into contact with that lazy, pilfering,
ignoble race ; and if they occasionally have trouble with Mr. Lo, the
blame is by no means entirely their own. No better description of
them and their characteristics can be given than the following by a
cattleman, who has lived and worked with them for years : —
" 'The cowboy is the most thoroughly misunderstood man, outside
of the localities where he is known, on the face of the earth. I know
him in all his alleged terrors, and as a class there are no nobler-
hearted or honorable men in the world. Brave to rashness and gen-
erous to a fault, if you should be thrown among them you would find
them ever ready to share their last crust with you, or lie down at
night with you on the same blanket. Say that I have ten thousand
cattle which I am about to send overland from Texas into Montana
to fatten for the market. Those cattle will be on the drive from the
first of April until the middle of September. They are divided into
three herds, with a dozen or sixteen men with each herd. I intrust
those cattle in the hands of a gang of cowboys. For six months I
know absolutely nothing of my stock. I trust their honesty to the
extent of many thousands of dollars, without a contract, without a
bond, with no earthly hold upon them, legally or morally, beyond
the fact that I am paying them thirty-five or forty dollars a month
564 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
to protect my interests. And these are the men pictured in the
East as outcasts of civilization ! I trust absolutely to their judgment
in getting those cattle through a wild and unbroken country without
loss or injury. I trust as absolutely to their bravery and endurance
in the face of danger, for a man to be a cowboy must be a brave
man. For instance, we are on a drive. The cattle are as wild as
deers naturally, and being in an unknown country are as nervous
and timid as sheep. The slightest noise may startle them into a
stampede. We have been on the drive all day, and night is coming
on. It is cold and raining. We have reached the point where we
intend to round up for the night. The men commence to ride around
the drove, singing, shouting, and whistling to encourage the animals
by the sounds they are familiar with and to drown any noise of an
unusual character which might provoke a stampede. Round and
round the cattle they ride, until the whole drove is travelling in a
circle. Slowly the cowboys close in on them, still shouting and
singing, until finally the cattle become quiet, and after a time lie
down and commence chewing their cuds with apparent contentment.
Still the vigilance of the men cannot be relaxed. At least half of
them must continue riding about the resting herd all night. A stam-
pede of cattle is a terrible thing to the cowboys, and may be brought
on by the most trivial cause. These wild cattle away from homes
are as variable as the wind, and when frightened are as irresistible
as an avalanche. The slightest noise of an unusual nature, the bark-
ing of a coyote, the snap of a pistol, the crackling of a twig, will
bring some wild-eyed steer to his feet in terror. Another instant
and the whole drove are panting and bellowing in the wildest fear.
They are ready to follow the lead of any animal that makes a break.
Then the coolness and self-possession of the cowboy are called into
play. They still continue their wild gallop around the frightened
drove, endeavoring to reassure them and get them quiet once more.
Maybe they will succeed after an hour or two, and the animals will
again be at rest. But the chances are that they cannot be quieted
so easily. A break is made in some direction. Here comes the
heroism of the cowboy. Those cattle are as blind and unreasoning
in their flight as a pair of runaway horses. They know no danger
but from behind, and if they did, could not stop for the surging sea
of maddened animals in the rear. A rocky gorge or deep-cut canon
may cause the loss of half their number. Those in the rear cannot
see the danger, and the leaders cannot stop for those behind and are
pushed on to their death. A precipice may lie in their way, over
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING .
565
which they plunge to destruction. It matters not to the cowboy.
If the stampede is made, the captain of the drove and his men ride
until they head it, and then endeavor to turn the animals in a circle
once more. A hole in the ground, which catches a horse's foot, a
stumble, and the hoofs of three thousand cattle have trampled the
semblance of humanity from him. He knows this. A gulch or gorge
lies in their path. There is no escaping it. There is no turning to
DEATH OF A HERO.
the right or the left, and in an instant horse and rider are at the
bottom, buried under a thousand cattle. History records no instance
of more unquestioning performance of duty in the presence of dan-
ger than is done by these men on every drive. Should the stampede
be stopped, there is no rest for the drivers that night, but the utmost
vigilance is required to prevent a recurrence of the break from the
frightened cattle. This may happen hundreds of times on a single
drive.
" * I remember one in.stance which, from the friendship in which
566 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
I held the victim, has made a lasting impression on me. Two
brothers were together on the drive. Both men had been educated
in an Eastern college, but for some reason had drifted to the cattle
plains of Texas and had become cowboys. The elder was the cap-
tain of the drive. Sitting about the camp-fire one night the younger
was very down-hearted about something, and finally said : *' Charlie,
let's throw up this drive. I don't want to go ; I feel that one or the
other of us will never go back. I am ashamed of this, but I cannot
shake it off." His brother was impressed by his seriousness, but
could only say : '' George, here are three thousand cattle in my charge.
I could not leave them if I knew that I would be killed to-morrow."
''A stampede!" cried one of the men. In an instant they were all
at their animals, saddles were adjusted, and away they went. The
captain gained the head of the drive, and had succeeded in turning
them a little when his horse stumbled. In another instant horse and
rider could hardly have been distinguished from one another. This
is the class of men cowboys are made of, and I never knew of many
instances where they failed to do their duty.
" 'There is another interesting period in the life of the cowboy,
and that is the spring round-up. In the fall the cattle stray away,
and in working away from the storms they sometimes get away
a hundred miles or so. Each cattle-owner has his own particular
brand on his cattle. The ranchmen in some natural division of the
country will organize a grand round-up in the spring. The cowboys
will drive the cattle all in together in one big drove. Then the
captain of the round-up will direct the owner of ranch A to "■ cut "
out his cattle. One of A's most experienced men will then ride into
the drive until he sights an animal with his brand on. Deftly he
will drive the animal to the outer edge of the herd, and then with
a quick dash, run the beast out away from the drove, and it is taken
in charge by others of A's ranchmen, while the cutter goes back
after another. After some fifteen or twenty minutes, A's cutter will
be taken off and B's man given a chance. This will be continued
until each ranch has its cattle cut out. If any cattle are found
without a brand, they are killed for the use of the men on the round-
up. This cutting is a work requiring great skill and experience, and
frequently requires the use of the lariat. Often cattle with a strange
brand are found. If any one recognizes the brand, a ranchman living
nearest the owner takes charge of it and notifies the owner. If no
one recognizes the brand, the captain of the round-up advertises it,
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. 567
and if no owner is found, it is sold at auction for the benefit of the
Cattlemen's Association.
'' ' These things will go to show the responsibilities resting upon
these men. I will tell you how they get the reputation for reckless-
ness. We will suppose these men have been on a drive for six
months and been paid off. Then they are just like any other body
of men ; they go in for some fun, and on their lark ride yelling
through the streets of some little town, shoot a few street lamps out,
or get into a saloon row. Some imaginative correspondent immedi-
ately sends an account of it to some Eastern paper, where it comes
out headed "Another Cowboy Outrage." Now, I know of hundreds
of cowboys who never carry a revolver. They have strict ideas of
honor, and they stand upon their honor. They are off duty, a lot
of big-hearted, rough boys, but they are not outlaws or outcasts.
They are not the class of men who rob trains or hold up people
crossing the plains, and I believe that, taken for all in all, the
American cowboy will compare favorably in morals and manners
with any similar number of citizens, taken as a class.' "
A traveller in the West, writing to the Chicago Herald, describes
the heroic conduct of a cowboy as follows : —
" One of the slickest things I ever saw in my travels, was a cow-
boy stopping a cattle stampede. A herd of six or eight hundred had
got frightened at something and broke away pell-mell, with their tails
in the air, and the bulls at the head of the procession. But Mr.
Cowboy didn't get excited at all when he saw the herd was going-
straight for a high bluff, where they would certainly tumble down
into the canon and be killed. You know that when a herd like that
gets to going they can't stop, no matter whether they rush to death
or not. Those in the rear crowd those ahead, and away they go.
I wouldn't have given a dollar a head for that herd, but the cowboy
spurred up his mustang, made a little detour, came in right in front
of the herd, cut across their path at a right angle, and then galloped
leisurely on to the edge of that bluff, halted, and looked around at
that wild mass of beef coming right toward him. He was as cool as
a cucumber, though I expected to see him killed, and was so excited
I could not speak. Well, sir, when the leaders had got within about a
quarter of a mile of him I saw them try to slack up, though they
could not do it very quick. But the whole herd seemed to want to
stop, and when the cows and steers in the rear got about where
the cowboy had cut across their path, I was surprised to see them stop
and commence to nibble at the grass. Then the whole herd stopped,
568
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
wheeled, straggled back, and went to fighting for a chance to eat
where the rear guard was.
"You see that cowboy had opened a big bag of salt he had
brought out from the ranch to give the cattle, galloped across the
herd's course and emptied the bag. Every animal sniffed that line
of salt, and, of course, that broke up the stampede. But, I tell you
it was a queer sight to see that fellow out there on the edge of that
bluff quietly rolling a cigarette, when it seemed as if he'd be lyin-
under two hundred tons of beef in about a minute and a half."
iBlUuii Hiii Mk\\_ wij^v\v\'^\w\\\m ^^m'^ww y^-^
STOPPING A STAMPEDE.
THE "ROUND-UP."
We have said that, from November to May, cattle wander where
they please for food. Cowboys bestow no special care upon them,
except occasionally, after a severe storm, or during an unusually cold
winter, they go out to find how it is with the herd.
About the twentieth of May, however, the '^ round-up" begins.
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING.
569
All the cattlemen in the district (the grazing country is divided into
districts, under the control of necessary laws) meet at a given plage,
each owner of a herd furnishing a given number of cowboys and
horses, according to the size of his herd ; an organization is formed
by the choice of captain and other necessary officers ; and the
exciting and fascinating business begins. The cowboys, upon their
well-trained bronchos, sweep over the country, searching for and
surrounding the scattered cattle, driving them towards an appointed
locality, where, each day, each stockman ''cuts out" his own cattle,
brands the calves, guards them at night, and drives them on the
GROUP OF COWBOYS.
following day to another fixed locality, and thus on, until the home
ranch is reached, when they are again turned loose.
Many of the steers are wild as buffaloes, and often start off into
a dead run just where the cowboys object to their going, and it is a
neck and neck race often for miles, or until the wild creatures are
exhausted. Here the excitement, as well as the dangers of the
business, come in. Sometimes a wild bull will turn upon his pursuer
in a frenzy of madness, and the cowboy has but one thing to do — he
must turn from the enraged animal and run for dear life. Neither
horse nor rider can wage successful warfare with a mad bull. Horses
are trained so thoroughly to the business that they voluntarily chase
a steer when it is necessary, but run from him when that appears
advisable.
570
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
A writer in the Boston Commercial Bulletin describes his participa-
tion in a round-up in Colorado, from which we make a few extracts: —
''All in a moment the earth seemed fairly sprouting with cattle,
as they suddenly sprang into sight on all sides, the insatiate curiosity
of the animals drawing them from miles across the country to take a
good look at us. Breathing hard with excitement, they would stand
viewing us with eyes large from fright and defiance, until as we
started for them away they would go, bellowing wildly and with a
noise as of hundreds of beaten drums from the falling hoofs.
THE "ROUND-UP.'
"And wildly exciting was the chase, our aims quite marvellously
aided by the excellence of our ponies, who it would seem might
almost have accomplished the task themselves. The perceptions of
a trained cow-horse become marvellously acute. Guided by the
smallest twitch on the reins, he seems to divine by a subtle instinct
the will of the rider. Out of a large herd the horse will seem to
comprehend at once what cattle are to be cut out, sighting an animal
apparently at the same instant with his rider, and seeming: to take a
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. 571
diabolical sort of delight in running the creature down and frustrating
all its clumsy, contrary efforts to run the wrong way.
********
"When a cowboy leaves his outfit to join any other, or for an
expedition of any kind, he always takes his 'string' of horses,
generally five or six, as well as all of his personal property, along
with him. The tarpaulin — always pronounced as if spelled tarpau-
lioii, and we will therefore henceforth so call it — and the blankets,
comprising his bed, are wrapped around the gentlest of his horses
and made fast with a lariat in a good ' squaw hitch ' ; on top of this
the precious war-sack is fastened with especial care, and thus, driving
his horses ahead of him, with all his earthly responsibilities directly
before his eyes, the cowboy sallies forth. He gets his ' grub ' at
any ranch he may come to until he joins another grub wagon, and
unrolls his bed on the ground wherever night overtakes him, corral-
ling his horses if he is so lucky as to find a corral, otherwise hobbling
them, that is, tying the forelegs together with a bit of rope. One
horse, however, ready for immediate use, he always stakes."
STARTING A LAUNDRY.
** There were a few posts to be replanted at this point ; but, for
the most part, we had little to do, and we improved the leisure by
establishing a little impromptu laundry by the river side. Our
process was very simple. Wetting the garments thoroughly, we laid
them out on the bank, rubbing them well over with soap ; we then
scrubbed and slapped each piece vigorously between our hands, when
we rinsed them well, wrung them out, spread them on the grass, and,
lighting pipes, stretched our exhausted selves out beside them, keep-
ing a lazy oversight on the drying. Some, more energetically
ingenious, tied their clothes in a bunch to the end of a lariat, and,
throwing them out in the stream, towed them up a piece against the
current ; but, beyond its interesting eccentricity, there was little to
be said in favor of this method.
'' The river comprised our entire toilet facilities, barring the hard
soap on the grub wagon ; and we were wont to seize upon every
opportunity for a bath and a swim in its murky waters."
********
" The ideas of roughness and exposure suggested by sleeping out
are not sustained by the facts in the cowboy's case, as in the tar-
paulion properly folded he sleeps as warmly and comfortably as in a
572
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
tent. The method of his bed-making is not without art of its own.
He first spreads out his tarpauUon on the ground. On the middle,
at one end, a few inches below the edge, widthwise, his blankets,
each folded once through the middle, are laid ; his war-sack is
arranged for a pillow, and then the tarpaulion is folded over the
blankets on either side, making a sausage-like roll of the canvas
STARTING A LAUNDRY.
some two feet wide, and the full sixteen feet long. Going to the
foot then he makes a last fold just below his blankets, drawing the
extra length well up over his pillow, where it will extend a couple of
feet, forming ample shelter from rain.
" When one crawls into bed he first throws back the top folds of
the tarpaulion, drawing it out a little wider than the bed beneath ;
then boots, hat, chaparrals, and other garments are arranged above
the pillow, and he gently insinuates himself down between the
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. 573
blankets, pulling the extra length of canvas up over his head. If
the wind blows hard, he reaches up and tucks the loose canvas well
under his head, his covering presenting a smooth surface to the
weather, and his body acting as a water-shed, so that he can sleep in
warm security through the heaviest storm. With the blankets prop-
erly folded inside the tarpaulion, the whole is rolled up into a huge
roly-poly package during the day, going on the grub wagon when the
camp moves ; and but a few minutes suffices at night for the cow-
boy to 'roll down' his bed, and estabhsh himself in what his hard
day's work has taught him to regard as sufficient luxury.
** In getting started, a young lad, who had just joined the outfit
at Sterling, having a bucking horse of extreme viciousness, was
thrown twice, once landing safely on his feet, but the next time
striking on his head with terrible force. As the poor boy — 'he WcPs
no more than fourteen years old — staggered to his feet, sick and
dizzy, to try it again, I took pity on him, and, riding out to the herd,
roped up a fresh horse-, while one of the other boys hastily helped
me to shift the lad's saddle and help him on in good shape. Had he
been a few years older, nobody would have dreamed of interfering,
nor should I have ventured to do it even then had I seen the fore-
man about. He was on hand, however; and his wrath at my irregu-
larity of friendliness was prompt and outspoken, evidently increasing
the unreasoning hostility with which he had all along regarded me.
" Cowboys generally are skilled horsemen, many of them expert
'broncho-breakers,' really capable of sustaining the common boast
of being 'able to ride anything that wears hair.' Some of their
fancy riding, picking up coins and blossoms from the ground while
going at full speed, and other feats of a similar nature, are wonder-
fully graceful. For these tricks, however, the horse, as well as the
rider, must be trained, an undisciplined horse always stopping when
one leans low from the saddle, which is likely to throw the rider from
the force of inertia. A favorite feat of the cowboy broncho-breaker,
and one by no means easy, is to place silver dollars in his stirrups, —
when he can get together so much wealth, — and back himself to
hold the coins in place while he rides his horse at full speed, instigat-
ing him to buck as much as possible."
The reader will find much additional information about the round-
up from the following description by a Kansas ranchman : —
" This part of the country is drained by a number of rivers which
all flow, roughly speaking, in a southeasterly direction. Between
the rivers are 'divides,' that is, tracts of land more or less elevated,
574
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
and from them small streams or * creeks ' run down, at various dis-
tances from each other, to the rivers. Let us suppose that we are
going to round up a certain section of country. Some point is fixed
on the river that runs through that section, at which to commence
work. Every one likely to have any cattle in that neighborhood
sends one or more representatives, according to the number he ex-
pects to find. The smaller owners club together and fit out a wagon
with provisions, so that there may be with one wagon six or eight
PICKING UP A COIN.
men representing as many different brands. The big men, who
expect to find perhaps one thousand head, send a wagon of their own,
with five or six riders. We will suppose the meeting-point about
thirty miles from our camp. About two days before the time fixed
for beginning work we load a wagon with provisions, according to
the number of men who go with it, and the probable time of their
absence. Each man puts in his own roll of blankets. A driver is
provided, who has also to act as cook. Each of the riders is provided
with several horses, the usual allowance being about five to a man.
A horse-herder is generally taken, whose sole duty is to look after
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING.
575
the loose horses. When we are ready we make our start, driving the
loose horses before us.
'' In the middle of the day we camp for dinner, and probably wish
to change our horses. To effect this, a couple of ropes are stretched
from the wheels of the wagon, a man holding the end of each, so as
to form an angle into which the horses are driven. The men stand
behind the horses to prevent them from getting out at the open side
of the triangle, each armed with a lariat, which he throws over the
head of the particular animal he wishes to ride, and pulls him out of
the herd. When every one has caught his horse, the remainder are
GRUB WAGON FOR THE "ROUND-UP."
turned loose again to graze, until it is time to go on. At night we
camp beside a stream, if we can find one, and in order to prevent the
horses from straying, we round them up again, and hobble them by
tying a short rope to the forelegs of each. A couple of horses are
picketed out, with which to get up the others in the morning. The
following morning, at daybreak, the cook is up and gets breakfast
for us, while two of the men go to hunt up the horses, unhobble
them, and drive them back to the wagon. After breakfast the wagon
is reloaded with the bedding and cooking utensils, and we proceed
on our journey. On reaching our destination that evening, we see
wagons dotted about in every spot convenient for camping, while
hundreds of horses are grazing about in herds, averaging, perhaps.
57^ MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
fifty or sixty head. The men are for the most part lounging round
their camp-fires, discussing cattle, bragging of the speed of their
horses, or describing the various brands of which they are in search.
"■ The next morning we are early astir. The * boss ' of the range
we are on comes along and tells us what he wants us to do. We are
to work perhaps two creeks that morning. A party is sent up to the
head of each creek to drive the cattle down to the mouth, while a
third rounds up the cattle along the river. Our party is split up so
that two or three may be present at each round-up, and as the men
with our wagon are all well acquainted with each other's brands, we
arrange to cut any cattle belonging to any of our party wherever we
may find them. The detachments that are to work the creeks ex-
tend themselves on the way up, and throw on to the creeks all the
cattle grazing in their neighborhood. When we get to the head
water of our creek, which may be about five miles long, we bring in
any cattle we can find on the divide, and then our whole party ride
down, pushing all the cattle before them nearly tQ the river ; and
wherever we find a convenient level, we round them up, the men
posting themselves round the herd,' which contains perhaps seven or
eight hundred head, to prevent them from breaking away. Then
the work of cutting out begins. The boss of the range has appointed
two of his men to help to hold the herd, and also to prevent every-
body from rushing in, as soon as the cattle are rounded up, and
'ginning them around,' as he would call it, so that no one can work
properly, and the calves all get separated from their mothers, making
it impossible to tell to whom they belong. As soon as the cattle
have quieted • down, the word is given that one man from each outfit
may go in and cut out. One of our party goes in, and wherever he
sees an animal bearing one of our brands he runs it out, continuing
until we have collected a little bunch of cattle, which a second man
herds, to prevent them from straying off and mixing with the other
* cuts.' When we have got out all our cattle we drive them off
towards our wagon. In the meantime two other round-ups have
been proceeding, and our ' cuts ' from them are brought along and
all thrown together, forming the nucleus of what we call our ' day-
herd ' . . .
*' A horse that knows what is wanted goes quietly through the
herd while you are looking for your brand ; then, when you have
singled out your animal and urged her on gently to the edge of the
herd, he perceives at once which is the one to be ejected. When
you have got her close to the edge, you make a little rush behind her.
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING.
S77
and she runs out ; but as likely as not, as soon as she finds herself
outside the herd she tries to get back again, and makes a sudden
wheel to the left to get past you. Instantly your horse turns to the
left, and runs along between her and the herd so that she cannot get
in. Then she tries to dodge in behind you. The moment she turns,
your horse stops and wheels round again, always keeping between
the cow and the herd, till she gives it up and runs out to the cut
where you want her. A good cutting horse wijl do all this with the
reins lying loose upon his neck.
*' But it is time to get our dinner. When that is over, we tell the
cook to take the wagon up the river about six miles, and there camp.
PREPARING FOR THE NIGHT-HERD.
Two of our party are told off to follow with the day-herd, and the
rest of us attend a couple more round-ups that take place in the after-
noon. That night we picket out a horse apiece, as we have to herd
our cattle. The leader of the party divides the night into so many
reliefs, and tell each man at what hour he has to go 'on herd.' The
next day we work on up the river in the same way, and so on de die
in diem till we have rounded up all the cattle in that section of the
country.
'' If our day-herd becomes unwieldy in size, we despatch it to the
range with a couple of men, and commence a fresh herd. Notwith-
standing all our care, some cattle are sure to be left behind. A cer-
tain number have probably escaped being rounded up. A few we
5/8 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
have accidentally missed, even when they were in the round-up, and
some calves were not to be found, so that we have left the cows
behind to hunt them up. In a few weeks, therefore, we shall work
over the same ground again, and then we shall get nearly everj^thing
that we left behind on the first occasion."
The same writer furnishes an incident showing how readily cattle
learn : —
"The cattle were so well acquainted with my movable shanty that
they felt quite at home near it. They had a very annoying habit of
getting up early in the morning, just as one was enjoying his final
and sweetest nap, and rubbing their foreheads against the corners of
the house, every now and then bringing their horns with a bang
against the sides. When we moved down on Big Sandy, we had to
wait two or three days before we could get a man to haul down the
shanty, so we bedded the cattle on the opposite side of the creek to
that on which we intended to station the house, in order that they
might get into the habit of sleeping a little way off from it ; but the
very first night after it arrived they all with one consent moved
across the creek and bedded themselves close beside it."
A ranchman relates the following incident illustrative of the peri
lous experience of cattle-driving : —
"One is not ordinarily much troubled by insomnia when cattle
driving, but I had a bad nightmare one night, which was not imagi^
nary, but came in the shape of a real cow. I had taken the first
relief at night-herding, and when my time was up, and I had called
the next man, I lay down near the herd and was soon unconscious of
all around. While I was enjoying my peaceful slumbers, an old
brute of a cow came grazing in my direction, and as soon as she saw
the herder coming round to turn her in, she started to run. When
she came to where I was lying, she planted her foot on my chest,
having scraped my lip with her hoof, and she then stepped on the
leg of one of the boys, who was sleeping beside me, who awoke with
a fearful yell, exclaiming that his leg was broken ! For a few minutes
I felt doubtful whether I was half killed or not, but finally came to
the conclusion that I was not much damaged, and, my neighbor
seeming also to perceive that this first rash statement respecting his
leg was untenable, we soon resigned ourselves again to the arms of
Morpheus."
A stockman from whom we have already quoted describes the
horses chiefly used, thus: —
" They are for the most part bred in Texas, and are exactly suited
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING.
579
to the work required of them. They are generally small, but re-
markably tough. A man does not think anything of catching up one
from grass and riding him forty or fifty miles in a day. They are
never given any corn during the summer, and, if at the beginning of
winter they are turned loose in fair condition, they will hold their
own on the grass, and fatten up very fast as soon as the green grass
comes in the spring. Those that are used in the winter require
some grain. Notwithstanding their small size, they are up to con-
siderable weight. The Mexican saddle in general use weighs from
thirty to forty pounds,
and on top of that you
may sometimes see a
man of fourteen or fif-
teen stone. 1 In point
of temper they vary
considerably. Some
are as docile as could
be wished, while a good
many are addicted to
'bucking.' When a
horse bucks he puts his
head down between his
legs, arches his back
like an angry cat, and
springs into the air
with all his legs at
once, coming down
again with a frightful
jar, and he sometimes
keeps on repeating the
performance until he is completely worn out with the excursion. The
rider is apt to feel rather worn out too by that time, if he has kept his
seat, which is not a very easy matter, especially if the horse is a real
scientific bucker, and puts a kind of side action into every jump. The
double girth commonly attached to these Mexican saddles is useful
for keeping the saddle in its place during one of those bouts, but
there is no doubt that they frequently make a horse buck who would
not do so with a single girth. With some animals you can never
draw up the flank girth without setting them bucking. ... A really
A BUCKING HORSE.
^JZ^-^^
1 A " stone " in Great Britain is fourteen pounds.
JYZ
580 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
good Texas cow-pony, when broken, is worth from sixty to seventy
dollars. The common sort can be had for half that price."
When the cattle of a district are all collected, the work of " cut^
ting out " the cattle of each owner begins. It is an exciting and
interesting feature of the round-up. Each owner has his brand,
which is properly recorded at a State office ; and his cowboys, skilled
in the business, separate his cattle from the herd one by one. The
cowboys not engaged in cutting out surround the herd and keep
them together. The illustration
shows the present style of branding
cattle.
This brand is taken from the book
of brands published by the " Wyo-
ming Stock-Growers' Association."
The book contains the brand em-
ployed by every member of the asso-
CATTLE BRAND. . , ^ 1 , • -, , • •
ciation. Other kindred associations
employ the same method, so that all the brands of the country are
known, and to whom they belong. Under this arrangement the loss
of cattle by straying, theft, or false claim is small.
Branding cattle is cruelty. The above brands are burned into the
hide with red-hot iron. The cruelty of the method has prompted
cattlemen to seek some better way to mark their property. But as
yet, no method has been discovered that meets the conditions of
ranch life so well as this. There is no doubt that some other way
of marking cattle will be discovered, superseding the present cruel
method.
The cowboy fastens his eyes upon an animal wearing his employ-
er's brand, and then proceeds to separate it from the herd. It is not
so long and difficult a job as might at first appear, though often an
exciting race and hard tussle transpires. Calves, of course, will fol-
low their mothers, and the mothers will not leave their calves for
much of a run. An eye-witness says of this part of the round-
"■ Experienced cowboys ride in among the cattle, and, selecting
the animals bearing their employer's brand, drive them out of the
general herd and form others, each composed of cattle representing
one ownership. This work is called ' cutting out.' The men not
engaged in cutting out are employed in ' holding ' the herds. The
foreman of the round-up has supervision of the work, and sees that
cattle are claimed only by the men entitled to them.
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAtSING.
581
" When cutting out has been finished at one general herd, another
is 'worked' in the same manner, and then another, and so on,
until all the cattle driven in during the day's round-up have been
inspected and separated.
''When the cowboys have taken from the herds all the cattle
belonging to their respective employers, there are usually a few
cattle left over. These are estrays and mavericks. Both classes
are disposed of under regulations of the association.
" Stray animals whose owners are unknown, and which are of a
marketable weight, are taken up, shipped, and marketed. A report
of the fact is made to an association inspector, and the proceeds are
ROPING AND CUTTING OUT
remitted to the secretary of the association, who keeps an account
of the money for the purpose of turning it over to the owner of the
estrays, should he be found. But if by the time of the next annual
meeting no one has claimed the purchase money, it becomes part of
the general fund of the association.
''A 'maverick ' is an unbranded calf away from its mother. The
custom among stockmen, recognized by the rules of the association,
is to brand a maverick found on the general round-up with the mark
belonging to the largest female herd in the neighborhood."
Branding calves follows ' cutting out,' which requires the services
of four men. While calves are expected to stick to their mothers,
they are so wild and nimble that often the cowboy has a race after
them. A strapping great cowboy on his horse, chasing one of these
582
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
diminutive little creatures has been the occasion of much loud
laughter that is comical indeed. Mr. Keyes, speaking from per-
sonal observation, says : —
*' Perhaps you may think that this is an easy task ; but you would
find if you tried it that you were never more mistaken in your life,
for the ease with which the rancheros accomplish it has only come
with careful training and long practice. The little animal runs won-
derfully fast, springs, turns, and dodges almost like a flash. But the
cowboy never takes his eyes off of him ; and the trained horse, now
well warmed up, and entering fully into the spirit of the chase,
BRANDING CALVES.
responds to, almost seems to anticipate, every turn of his rider's left
hand and wrist. Meanwhile the latter, with his right arm, is swing-
ing his noosed rope, or lasso ; and in another minute he has thrown
it exactly over the calf's head. Instantly the horse plunges forward,
giving 'slack' to the rope, and allowing it to be wound around the
horn of the saddle ; then he moves on, dragging the calf after him,
and the little creature is soon in the hands of the men with the
branding-irons. These have been heated in a hot fire, and are
quickly applied ; and in a few minutes, the calf, now indelibly desig-
nated as the property of his master, is again running about."
After the general round-up in summer, there follows the beef
round-up, collecting cattle which are in a good condition for the
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING.
583
market. This occurs in August and September, so that the beeves
can be sent to market in October. This is the most interesting part
of the whole year to the stockman ; for he learns at this time what
his profits are. His object in raising cattle is to make money,
appeasing the hunger of his fellow-men being only incidental to his
business. Hence, he is happy when his beef from a herd of two
CHASING A CALF.
thousand returns him seven or eight thousand dollars ; or his herd of
three thousand returns him ten thousand dollars for beef ; or his herd
of twelve thousand animals returns him forty or fifty thousand dollars ;
or his herd of twenty-five thousand returns a round one hundred
thousand dollars for beef. Such returns are in perfect harmony with
the genial days of October ; and no wonder the stockman is *' con-
tented with all the world, and all the world with him."
But his fat cattle must be sent by rail to market, probably to
584 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Kansas City or Chicago. He may be twelve or fifteen hundred
miles away from his market ; and it is no small job to transport
cattle that distance, many of them as wild as beasts of prey.
The herd may be many miles from the railroad — twenty-five,
one hundred miles, or even more. They must be driven over this
distance, subject, in some localities, to the driving snow-storms of
the season, in which man and beast suffer seriously. Full as much
care and watch must be bestowed upon them at night as through the
day. But they reach the railroad station, where suitable corrals are
found in which to enclose them until freight-cars appear. We have
known a stockman to wait thirteen days in a storm of snow and sleet
for the expected cars, man and beast suffering intensely night and
day.
The following description of a "night run " of cattle in Montana,
going to the railroad, will furnish the reader with additional ideas
about the cowboy's trials : —
" A large herd of big steers for market were being driven across
the country from Musselshell to Billings, on the Northern Pacific
Railroad, where they were to be shipped on the cars for Chicago.
There were about two thousand head, I should judge, the property of
a Mr. De Hass, a very young man. One evening a military camp
had been made just ahead of the cattle, and on the same side of the
creek with them, up which the cattle were being driven. A storm
was coming up, and the cattle exhibited some signs of uneasiness.
Mr. De Hass sent word to the military officer that he had better get
his men, wagons, and animals on the opposite side of the creek and
out of the way, as he feared there was going to be a ''night run."
The herders were instructed to keep their horses saddled and be
ready to mount at a moment's notice. The cattle were very uneasy,
getting up, lying down again, and shifting about as if uncomfortable.
At last, about midnight, there came a sharp flash of lightning,
followed by a heavy peal of thunder, and in an instant the whole herd
were upon their feet. ' Mount and whip out,' cried De Hass, and
the herder who was at the head of the column drove off a few of the
leading steers in the direction they were to go. All the others
followed, and the herd was soon in full flight. The herders made no
effort to check or control them, further than to keep them going
straight ; they rode at the head of the column, one on each side of
them, swung to the right or left, and keeping the trail ; bluffs and
precipices were avoided, and the open flat ground courted. The run
lasted about two hours, when a gorge was being neared, in which the
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. 585
cattle would crowd and break their limbs. They were now quite
tired, and the herders determined to exert their authority and stop
the run. The head of the column was bent out on the prairie, and
circled round and round until the cattle became tied up in a huge
ball and could not move at all. In this way they were obliged to
stay till morning, the herders riding round and round them, and
keeping them completely tied up. At daylight they were allowed to
''open out." First, the outer edge scattered, and then layer after
layer, until the huge pile of beef was once more a herd, grazing as
quietly as if nothing had happened."
When the train arrives, the cowboys meet a very difficult prob-
lem to s«lve ; viz., putting the cattle on board the cars. Think of
enticing or driving a wild steer into a car ! The average steer is not
drawn naturally toward a railroad train. To him the car is a " new-
fangled notion," which has no attractions for him. He protests
against such a mode of conveyance, and sets up his Ebenezer, as wild
steers only can. But the cowboys know their business, and they
know their steers, too. Brute force always surrenders to intellectual
power. The cowboy conquers in the end.
It is hard work — indeed, the whole cattle business is hard work ;
and the boys never have harder work than they do between the time
of herding the cattle, and delivering them at Kansas City or Chicago.
For the cattle must not be allowed to lie down. A car will hold
from eighteen to twenty-two animals, in the standing posture ; and,
if one lies down, the cowboy, on the alert both night and day, must
punch the animal up. If one lies down, others will trample on him.
Of course there is no sleep for the cowboy on the way to market.
Day and night are alike to him. When the destination is reached, it
is difficult to tell which is in the most pitiable condition, the cowboy
or the cow. This is especially true when the distant market sought
is Chicago. Most of the cowboys declare, when the trip is accom-
plished, " Never catch me in that business again " ; but they forget
the hardships before the next annual market season, and play the
heroic over again.
" Blabbing calves," as it is called, is a method adopted to wean a
calf when the mother is growing thin. '' A ' blab ' is a piece of thin
board, six inches by four inches, which has a piece cut out of the
middle of one of the longer sides, so shaped that you can just force
it on to the membrane that divides the nostrils of a calf. When put
on, it hangs down over the mouth of the animal so that it cannot
suck, but is able to graze without difficulty. When you start out on
S86
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
a blabbing expedition, you place several blabs in your pocket and ride
along till you see a big calf whose dam looks as if she would be the
better for being relieved of the support of her progeny. You then
take your lariat off your saddle, and, holding it in convenient coils in
your left hand, with the running noose in your right, you gallop after
the calf till you get close up to it. Then you whirl the noose round
your head two or three times, to get a good swing, and launch it at
the head of the calf. If you are like me, you will probably find no
result, the calf continuing to pursue his way across the prairie with
the same vigor as before. Then, if you have a professional cowboy
'!» ; M
•'",.. I '1
^-^ Ir^-
CHICAGO STOCKYARDS.
with you, he takes up the running, and probably brings the calf to
book before long, though even he will not always succeed at the first
throw. When you have the calf roped, it is an easy matter to throw
him down and stick the blab on his nose, after which you turn him
loose and go on in quest of another."
Since the New West contributes so largely to make the stock-
yards of Chicago what they are, we will stop here to describe them.
The stockyards of Chicago are a cattle city, covering three hun-
dred and twenty acres, laid out in complete order, lighted with gas,
supplied with pure water, with ample hotel accommodations for
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. 587
cattlemen, and connected by rail with the entire railway system of
the West. Two hundred acres have been covered with yards, pens,
feed-barns, scale-houses, and platforms for loading and unloading
stock. The remaining one hundred and twenty acres are covered
with railway switch-tracks, side-tracks, etc., for the purpose of con-
necting the marvellous city of live stock with the railroad world.
There are seventy-five miles of these switch and side-tracks.
This remarkable city of live stock has a bank, an exchange, tele-
graph and telephone offices, a post-office, and a newspaper. It has
thirty-five miles of sewers, ten miles of streets and alleys, paved
with wood, three miles of water-troughs, two thousand three hun-
dred gate^, two Artesian wells, and a fire department.
An average of seven hundred men daily is employed to conduct
the business of the stockyard ; receiving, yarding, feeding, watching,
weighing, and delivering stock. Miles of elevated drive-way have
been constructed for driving cattle and hogs over the ground lots,
pens, etc., from the central portion of the yards to the different
packing houses adjacent, and to the shipping departments. Of
course, the Union Stockyards of Chicago are a marvel so unique
and remarkable that the sight-seer who does not visit them can
scarcely be said to have seen Chicago.
These stockyards were opened in 1866, and received that year,
393,607 cattle, 961,746 hogs, 207,987 sheep, 1,553 horses, valued at
$42,765,328. In 1884 the receipts were, 1,870,050 cattle, 5,351,967
hogs, 801,630 sheep, 18,602 horses, valued at $187,387,680. For
several years past it has taken 200,000 railway cars to transport all
the animals received at the yards. The outlet for all this stock
touches nearly every portion of the civilized world.
On Jan. i, 1885, $5,000,000 had been expended in the construc-
tion of the Union Stockyards ; and their capacity for receiving and
yarding stock, at any one time, was 20,000 cattle, 150,000 hogs, 10,000
sheep, and 1,500 horses.
From the report of the company for 1885 we quote following
statistics : —
Largest Receipts of Stock in a Day.
Cattle, Aug. 27, 1885 12,096
Calves, Sept. i, 1885 1,773
Hogs, Dec. 5, 1884 66,597
Sheep, Feb. 24, 1885 io»937
Horses, Oct. 5, 1874 460
Cars, Dec. 10, 1884 1,522
588 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
Largest Receipts of Stock in One Week.
Cattle, week ending Oct. 20, 1883 52,192
Calves, week ending Sept. 12, 1885 4,369
Hogs, week ending Nov. 20, 1884 300,488
Sheep, week ending Dec. 19, 1885 32,027
Horses, week ending March 26, 1881 1,125
Cars, week ending Dec. 6, 1884 6,964
Largest Receipts of Stock in One Month.
Cattle, October, 1883 217,791
Calves, September, 1885 15,449
Hogs, November, 1880 1,111,997
Sheep, December, 1885 109,111
Horses, March, 1873 4,253
Cars, December, 1884 25,387
Largest Receipts of Stock in One Year.
Cattle, 1885 1,905,518
Calves, 1885 58,500
Hogs, 1880 7.059,355
Sheep, 1885 1,003,598
Horses, 1873 20,289
Cars, 1885 214,146
Valuation of Stock for twenty Years.
1866 ^42,765,328
1867 42,375,241
1868 52,506,288
1869 60,171,217
1870 62,090,631
1871 60,331,082
1872 87,500,000
1873 91,321,162
1874 115,049,140
1875 117,533,942
1876 $111,185,650
1877 99,024,100
1878 106,101,879
1879 1 14,795.834
1880 143,057,626
1881 183,007,710
1882 196,670,221
1883 201,252,772
1884 187,387,680
1885 173,598,002
Total $2,247,725,506
Average weight of hogs, 1885 239 lbs.
How it is that cattle can be exposed through the extreme cold of
winter and not perish in the most northern latitudes of the New
West is an enigma to many. Perhaps the following brief statement
from the Bismarck T^ibitne, concerning the cattle business in Mon-
tana and Dakota, will throw light upon the subject : —
'' It is now conceded that Montana and a portion of Dakota is the
greatest stock region in the world. The country is rolling, and the
cattle find excellent shelter from severe storms which sometimes
prevail. The snow-fall is light and the snow is dry. No crust forms,
and cattle do not freeze their feet, as is the case in Kansas and
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. 589
Nebraska, where sleet storms are frequent. At no time in the
winter does the snow cover entirely the cured grasses of the Mon-
tana ranges. Cattle have no trouble to get enough to sustain life
and even get fat. In Kansas frequently the backs of the cattle are
covered with ice to the depth of an inch or two, and the wet snow
' balls ' on their feet. A severe cold snap comes, and the animals
die from exhaustion and frozen feet. Montana and Dakota has been
the winter home of buffalo for years, and wherever they live and
thrive, there also will cattle do well."
The Pioneer Press speaks of the Northwestern stock ranges as
follows : —
" Persons uninformed as to the nature of the country, and know-
ing that the cold has been extreme throughout the Northwest this
winter, are apt to refuse credence to the statement that the loss of
animal life on the Montana and Dakota ranges, so far, has been
slight, and the prospects are good for successful wintering of stock
through the remainder of the season. Those who know the peculiar
adaptability of the country in question to stock-raising are not sur-
prised at the small loss of life reported. Montana and Dakota
beeves have far better chances to pull through the severest weather
safely than their brethren of Kansas and Nebraska, and the statistics
show that the amount of loss in the former is not nearly so large as
in the latter division. In the Northwestern Territories the ground
used for ranges is broken by coulees and ravines, which afford per-
fect protection from the wind, no matter how fiercely it rages on the
plains above. Cattle are like men in that they can stand a terrific
degree of still cold, but when exposed to storm perish quickly. In
portions of Montana, strange as it may seem, the winter season is far
shorter than it is farther south, since the chinook winds, which often
commence early in February, divest the ground of snow, and leave
the succulent buffalo grass exposed and easy picking. The coulees,
too, are not all drifted full, many of them showing drifts on one side
only, while the other is bare, or so nearly so that acclimated cattle
will paw the snow aside readily and graze with little hindrance. The
grazing country of Nebraska and Kansas is far flatter than that
further north, the wind gets a wider and longer sweep, and the thin
belts of timber along the streams are but little, if any, protection.
Besides, the upper animals are inured to colder weather and will
thrive in a temperature which would be certain death to the hardiest
of Kansas or Nebraska steers. Any honest ranchman, from north
or south, will bear witness to the truth of these statements."
590
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
In estimating the profits of stock-raising in the New West, it is
usual to deduct five per cent for losses by the cold of winter. But,
in ordinary winters the average loss will not be more than two or
three per cent. In winters of great severity, the losses will run up
to ten, fifteen, and even thirty per cent ; but such winters are in-
frequent. A stockman writes : —
*'As the days grow warmer, an annoying insect called the 'heel-
fly ' makes its appearance. The cattle are in great dread of this pest.
HAULING A COW FROM THE MIRE
and the instant an animal feels one, it hoists its tail in the air and
takes a bee-line for the nearest water. Now a good many of the
streams and water-holes in that part of the country have very miry
bottoms, so that a cow plunging violently in is very apt to stick
there, and, unless assisted out, will certainly perish. Often more
cattle are lost in that way than from all other causes, and it is advisa-
ble during the spring, and especially during the heel-fly season, which
fortunately does not last longer than three weeks, to ride along the
dangerous places in a range every day. When a cow is discovered
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. 59 1
mired down, two or three men throw their lariats over her horns
(if she has none, then over her neck), and taking two or three turns
with the rope round the horns of their saddle, drag her out on terra
firnia. If she has not been in very long, she generally goes off all
right ; but if she has been in a sufficient time to become thoroughly
chilled, she will probably die. Sometimes her legs are so benumbed
that she has to be assisted up before she can stand, and when this
happens, frequently the first thing which she does when she finds
herself on her feet is to put down her head and charge her deliverers.
But in her weakened condition it is easy enough to get out of her
way, and she either falls down in her further attempt or abandons
the chase." Of the Texas fever, he remarks : —
** Texas, or Spanish fever, as it is sometimes called, in a very curi-
ous disease. It usually originates with cattle that have come up
from Southern Texas. . . . But the peculiarity about Texas fever is
that the originators of it do not die from it nor even appear to be
diseased. When, however, any of the 'graded' cattle come in con-
tact with one of those fever-breeding herds, or even graze over the
ground along which one has passed, it may be weeks previously,
sickness and death are sure to follow. The better bred an animal is,
the more liable is he to the disease. Texas cattle that have been
wintered in Kansas sometimes show symptoms of disease after being
exposed to the contagion of a herd from the south, but they usually
soon recover, while in a herd graded up with short horn or other fine
blood mortality is often considerable. But an animal that has thus
caught the disease cannot communicate it further. It never spreads
beyond those that have received the contagion directly from the
Texas herd. Consequently the fears sometimes expressed that Texas
fever might be imported into England are perfectly groundless."
The prairie fire is a foe to stock-raising, endangering often both
ranch and herds and flocks. A Dakota newspaper describes a prairie
fire in that territory thus : —
*' Last Sunday evening, as the sun was sinking in the western
horizon, a fire was noticed encircling this place, and at no greater dis-
tance than twenty miles to the north and west. The scene that immedi-
ately followed was too horrible to be thought lightly of. The whole
heavens seemed as one mass of seething, hissing fire. The roar that
accompanied the flames as they darted upward, was enough to startle
the pioneer and completely shatter the bold and fearless tenderfoot.
The dense cloud of smoke that hovered above the fire sent huge coils
upward that, as the flare of the flames showed against them, pictured
59^
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
to the beholders standing below and shivering with fear,
demons as they flitted about in their aerial home in the skies.
*' A cry was raised, and in a few- minutes the citizens had turned
out en masse with wet bags and coal oil torches, and going to the
north and northwest limits of the town along the wagon trail leading
west, immediately plied the torches. The grass went off like powder,
burning a back-fire twenty feet wi'de in an instant, reaching nearly a
A PRAIRIE FIRE.
half-mile. Then to meet the creeping flames approaching from the
north, a double back-fire was started by the torchmen, and had just
been completed when the roar of the flames was heard ascending the
hill — only in a moment to flash in the tall grass and meet the back-
fire with the swish peculiar to the concussion following the discharge
of a cannon. The fire to the west was then about two miles distant,
but nearing at the rate of about eighteen miles an hour ; and when
the north fire had been safely met, all hands went to the southwest
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. 593
trail, running to about twenty yards north of the new school-house,
and started a back-fire on the north side of the trail, and then bring-
ing the fire over the trail, it was left to burn around the south side of
the school-house, being watched by eight or ten to prevent the fire
spreading to the building. At one time it seemed as though the
blaze would get the best of them, but the wet sacks were applied and
the flames subdued. Others parties were sent in different directions
and succeeded in checking the fire. The damage done, however, was
estimated at $10,000."
When such a fire is started near the stockman's ranch or herd,
everything is in peril. A woman on a ranch was asked by a visitor
from the East, ''What are your precautions against fire .-^ " She
replied : —
*' A can of kerosene and a bundle of matches to set back-fires with,
though the fire-guards of ploughed ground that you have seen all round
the ranch are the ounce of prevention, better than any cure. Then
we always keep a hogshead full of water at the stable, ready for
carting to the spot."
" A hogshead of water ! What good can a hogshead of water do
against a prairie fire } "
"■ Oh, we don't put it on with a hose, I assure you. My imagina-
tion gasps at the conception of managing a prairie fire with a hose.
We dip old blankets and old clothes in it, or boughs of tree if we can
get them, and beat the fire down with them."
" The illustration followed soon. All day smoke had been drift-
ing over Cameiro (Kansas), and at nightfall the scouts reported that
the whole force better be put on. The 'whole force' at the mo-
ment consisted of about twenty men who had just come in to supper,
and who started at once in wagons and on horseback. Ponies were
ordered after dinner for the entire household, even the ladies riding
far enough to have a view of the exciting scene, — parties from New
York were spending the summer here. There were no tumbling
walls or blazing buildings, and there was no fear of lives being lost
in upper stories ; but there were miles upon miles, acres upon acres,
of low grass burning like a sea of fire, while in the twilight shadows
could be seen men galloping fiercely on swift ponies, while the slow
wagons crept painfully, lest the precious water should be spilled,
from every homestead, each with its one pitiful hogshead. It seemed
incredible that such a mass of flame could ever be put out by such
a handful of workers ; and it was only, indeed, by each man's laboring
steadily at his own arc of the great circle, trusting blindly that others
594 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
were at work on the other side, as of course they always were, that
the lurid scene darkened down at last."
An eye-witness describes as follows, the way of guarding ranches
and stock against prairie fires : —
"Adjoining the sheep ranch was a cattle ranch belonging to a
Swiss gentleman, a brother-in-law of the American sheep-man, and
they made a common fire-guard to go round both their ranges. The
plan was to plough four furrows all round the outside of the ranges,
and then another ring of four furrows was ploughed inside the first,
at a distance of about fifty yards. In order to make the operation of
burning the guard safer, a mowing-machine had been run round on
the outside of the outer ring of furrows and on the inside of the inner
ring. The total length of the guard was about seven miles. After the
ploughing and mowing were done, we proceeded to burn the guard.
Two men fired the grass along the two sets of furrows, the furrows
preventing the fire from getting into the range or out to the open
country. Behind the men firing came two men with wet sacks, with
which to beat out the fire in case it showed any inclination to jump
the furrows. A fifth man drove a wagon which contained a tub of
water in which to wet the sacks from time to time. The man firing
on the leeward side of the guard would always precede the other by
a little, so that when the flame was swept across by the wind it
might be met by the back-fire from the leeward furrows, which would
prevent so much danger of its getting over into the grass beyond the
guard. Of course it would not be safe to attempt to burn the guard
when the wind was at all strong. The fire-guard, when completed,
presents a barrier of bare ground to an approaching prairie fire, which
the latter is unable to cross for lack of combustible matter to feed on.
It has to be renewed every autumn, as during the spring and summer
it becomes overgrown with grass again."
THE SHEEP RANCH.
It is claimed by many that raising sheep is more profitable than
raising cattle. Whether this be true or not, the sheep business of
the New West has become very extensive. Flocks of from one to
ten thousand are numerous. They multiply very rapidly, so that
a flock of one thousand is doubled and trebled in a marvellously brief
period. It is estimated that there are four hundred and fifty million
sheep in the world, and that about one-seventh of them — (66,000,000)
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING.
595
sixty-six million — are raised in the United States. Of this number
the New West has its full share.
We have collected estimates of the profits of sheep-raising from
various sources, to which we shall first call attention.
Mr. Hayes has the following in Harper' s MontJdy of January, 1880,
and he says of the figures : —
" They apply to the case of a man with capital, coming out, not to
take up or pre-empt land, but to buy a ranch ready to his hand.
'' Such a one, capable of accommodating five thousand head of
sheep, could be had, say, for $4,000, comprising at least three claims
three to five miles apart, also proper cabins, corrals, etc. A flock of
SHEEP RANCH.
two thousand assorted ewes, two to three years old, should be bought
at an average of $3 each, say $6,000 ; and 60 bucks at an average of
$30, or $1,800. A pair of mules and a saddle-horse will cost $275 ;
and we will allow for working capital, $1,925. Capital invested, say,
Oct. I, $14,000.
" Under ordinarily favorable circumstances, and with great care,
one may expect during May his lambs, and estimate that there will
be alive of them at time of weaning a number equal to seventy-five
per cent of his ewes, or, say, one thousand five hundred, on the ist
of October, a year from the time of beginning operations.
" His gross increase of values and receipts will then be, for that
year, as follows : —
59^ MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
1,500 lambs (average one-half ewes, one-half wethers), at $2 each ^3,000.00
In June he will shear his wool, and get from :
2,000 ewes, 5 pounds each, or 10,000 pounds, at 21 cents . . . ^2,100.00
60 bucks, 17 pounds each, or 1,000 pounds, at 15 cents .... 150.00 2,250.00
^5,250.00
Expenses:
Herders, teamsters, cook, and provisions ^1,835.00
Shearing 2,060 sheep, at 6 cents 123.60
Hay and grain 275.00
^2,233.60
Losses (all estimated as made up, in money) :
Ewes, 4 per cent on $6,000 ^240.00
Bucks, 5 per cent on $1,800 90.00 330.00
Depreciation :
On bucks, 5 per cent on $1,800 90.00 2,653.60
Net profits for first year $2,596.40
Second Year.
Tne 1,500 lambs will be a year older, and worth an additional 15 per cent (or 15
per cent on $3,000) $450.00
1,500 new lambs will be worth, as before 3,000.00
And there will be of wool from :
2,000 sheep, 5 pounds each, or 10,000 pounds, at 21 cents . . . $2,100.00
1,500 lambs, 4 pounds each, or 6,000 pounds, at 21 cents . . . 1,260.00
60 bucks, 17 pounds each, or 1,000 pounds, at 15 cents .... 150.00 3,510.00
$6,960.00
Expenses :
Herders, etc $2,060.00
Shearing 3,560 sheep, at 6 cents 213.60
Hay and grain 350.00
$2,623.60
Losses :
On ewes, 4 per cent on $6,000 $240.00
On bucks, 5 per cent on $1,800 90.00
On lambs, 7 per cent on $3,000 210.00 540.00
Depreciation :
On ewes, 5 per cent on $6,oco $300.00
On bucks, 5 per cent on $1,800 90.00 390.00 3,553-6o
Net profits for second year $3,406.40
Third Year.
The second year's lambs will be worth an additional 15 per cent, or, say (15 per
cent on $3,000) $450.00
There will be 1,500 lambs from original 2,000 ewes, and, say, from new 750 ewes
(one-half of 1,500), not more than 60 per cent in first lambing, or, say, 450 —
in all, 1,950 lambs, at $2 3,900.00
Wool will be :
From 3,500 ewes, 5)^ pounds each, or 19,250 pounds, at 21 cents $4,042.50
From 1,950 lambs, 4 pounds each, or 7,800 pounds, at 21 cents . 1,638.00
From 60 bucks, 17 pounds each, or 1,000 pounds, at 15 cents . . 150.00 5,830.50
$10,180.1:0
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. 597
Expenses :
Herders and fodder ^2,970.00
Shearing 5,510 sheep, at 6 cents 330.60
New corrals, etc 300.00
^3,600.60
Losses :
On ewes, 4 per cent, on ^6,000 ^240.00
On new sheep, 4 per cent on ^4,500 180.00
On lambs, 7 per cent on ^3,000 210.00
On bucks, 5 per cent on ^1,800 90.00 720.00
Depreciation :
On old ewes, 10 per cent on ^6,000 ^600.00
On bucks, 20 per cent on ^1,800 360.00 960,00 5,280.60
iNfctproh-? 01 third year ^4,899.90
Recapitulation.
Plrst year's profits $2,596.40
oecond year's profits 3,406.40
Third year's profits 4,899.90
Total $10,902.70
An official document from Idaho says : —
*' There are not many sheep raised here, but the business is a good
one. Some time since I had a conversation with a friend in relation
to his experienv'^ in sheep-raising, and learned the following facts : —
In May, 1877, he bough •^ 404 ewes and 123 wethers, at $3.00 . . . $1,581.00
In 1878 he sold 200 at $3.00 $600.00
In 1879 he sold 200 at $3.00 600.00
In 1880 he sold 200 at $2.50 500.00
When talking with me he had 2,300 for which he had been offered $2.00 each . 4,600.00
Total $6,300.00
Deduct cost of flock 1,581.00
Profit $4,719.00
** During the time he had not purchased any sheep, and was
unable to tell the amount of wool he had sold, but it is fair to pre-
sume that the amount received for the sale of wool would more than
pay for the labor of looking after his flock, and the small amount
expended in buying what hay was fed to them.
Mr. Fossett says of sheep-raising in Colorado : —
'' Thus far, the business of sheep-raising in Colorado has been
very profitable. A flock of 1,800 ewes, costing $4,500, were placed
on a ranch in Southern Colorado. In eight years 1,600 sheep were
killed for mutton, and consumed on the ranch, and 7,740 were sold
for $29,680. There are 14,800 head on hand, worth, at $3 per head,
598
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
;^44,400. The wool-clips paid for shepherds and all current expenses.
The result shows a net profit over the original investment of $69,520^
equal to 193 per cent per annum for eight years in succession. Per
contra, out of a flock of 1,200 very fine, selected ewes, worth $/\. per
head, 800 died during a storm of two days last March. The 400 that
survived raised last summer more than that number of lambs. The
dog is a valuable auxiliary in the care of sheep. The * Scotch collie '
surpasses all others in his natural aptitude for this work, and often-
times one well-trained sells for $150."
A reliable estimate from Montana shows the attractions of that
territory for the sheep-raiser : —
" Profits on wool-growing are estimated by many as greater than
on cattle-raising ; and even the more conservative breeders figure a
profit of from 25 to 35 per cent per annum upon all capital invested,
and all agree that the wool clip will pay every item of expense, leav-
ing the increase a clear gain. The loss from all causes is estimated
at from 2 to 3 per cent. The annual increase of flocks is placed at
48 per cent, and the increase of 1,000 ewes, 2 years old and up-
wards, from 80 to 150 per cent, probably averaging 90 per cent.
Sheep sell readily at from $3 to $3.50 per head. One herder can
take care of 2,000 head. Sheep-raising is emphatically the poor
man's industry in Montana ; for, having a free range, timber at hand
for construction of sheds and corrals, and, in fact, no capital needed
for running expenses after the first season, he is master of the situ-
ation if he can command any sum from $500 upwards for the pur-
chase of a small flock.
"A careful calculation of the profit on 1,000 ewes for a term of 5
years, made by a prominent sheep-owner, shows the following: —
YEAR.
EWES.
INCREASE.
i
EWES. WETHERS.
CUP.
First
Second ....
Third
Fourth ....
Fifth
1,000
1,175
i>555
2,033
2,660
700
822
1,088
1,423
1,862
350
411
544
711
931
350
411
544
711
931
;^i,ooo
1,700
2,522
3,710
5,032
Totals
5,895
2,947
2,947
^13,964
Total wool clip ^13,964
5,895 sheep, at I3 17,685
30 Merino bucks, at ^25 75^
Interest on cash obtained for wool 3*684
^36,083
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. 599
Investment and Expense.
i,ooo ewes, at ^3 ^3,000
Cabin, shed, and canvas 800
32 Merino bucks, at ^50 1,600
Herders' wages and board 2,600
Taxes and minor expenses 1,000 11,100
Profit ^24,983
Another estimate from an official document of Kansas is as fol-
lows : —
'' The following estimate of the cost of a start in sheep-raising is
made officially in the reports of the State, and assumes that the
investor takes personal charge of the place, as a man would be likely
to do who starts on a capital of $3,500, beginning operations about
April I, and performing most of the labor necessary to produce the
crops himself; the purchase of sheep to be made Sept. 15 following,
by which time preparations for shelter and feed are substantially
perfected.
" If the ranchman desires a larger dwelling than the one provided,
the land can be bought of the railroad company on 6 years' time,
at 7 per cent interest, thus reserving a larger portion of cash for
additional improvements. Or, he could purchase 320 instead of 160
acres, as estimated, the annual payments on which could be promptly
met from sales of wool, increase of flock, or grain grown, if an addi-
tional acreage were put under cultivation. This would, no doubt, be
a profitable investment, as an increase in value of real estate is not
improbable.
Investment.
160 acres of land, at ^2.50 $400.ocJ
House 300.00
Corrals 100.00
Windmill, pump, and troughs 125.00
Team, wagon, and harness ' 325.00
Farming implements 50.00
500 Merino ewes, at $3 1,500.00
6 Merino bucks, at $25 150.00 ^2,950.00
Cash 550.00
Total ^3,500.00
*'0n such an investment a profit of 25 per cent, exclusive of the
advance in the value of the land, may be counted upon, and a living
made in the meantime."
6oo MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
A. S. Eaton, of Russell County, Kansas, says : —
'* A sheep-master can realize from 40 to 70 per cent on his invest-
ment, according to the care and attention he gives to his flock.
My sales last year, from a herd of 1,550 sheep, amounted for wool
and sheep to $6,116.28. My expenses of running the business, in-
cluding taxes, were $900. I reduced my herd by 250 sheep ; but I
consider my flock worth as much to-day as one year ago. Yet, de-
ducting the amount that the 250 wethers were sold for, viz., $750,
would yet leave $4,366.28, or some 75 per cent on my investment,
ranch and all included."
The reader will be interested in the description of a mammoth
sheep ranch, which, if not exactly embraced in the New West, is
more nearly related to it than to any other part of the world.
** The little schooner Santa Rosa arrived in poi;^: from Santa Bar-
bara a few days ago," says the San Francisco Call. '' She comes up
to this city twice a year to secure provisions, clothing, lumber, etc.,
for use on Santa Rosa Island, being owned by the great sheep-raiser,
A. P. Moore, who owns the island and the 80,000 sheep that exist
upon it. The island is about 30 miles south of Santa Barbara,
and is 24 miles in length and 16 in breadth, and contains about
74,000 acres of land, which are admirably adapted to sheep-raising.
Last June Moore clipped 10 14 sacks of wool from these sheep,
each sack containing an average of 410 pounds of wool, making
a total of 415,740 pounds, which he sold at 27 cents a pound,
bringing him in $212,349.80, or a clear profit of over $80,000. This
is said to be a low yield ; so it is evident that sheep-raising there,
when it is taken into consideration that shearing takes place twice a
year, and that a profit is made of the sale of mutton, etc., is very
profitable. The island is divided into four quarters by fences
running clear across at right angles ; and the sheep have not to
be herded like those ranging about the foothills.
'' Four men are employed regularly the year round to keep the
ranch in order and to look after the sheep ; and during shearing
time fifty or more shearers are employed. These men secure forty
or fifty days' work ; and the average number of sheep sheared a day
is about ninety, for which five cents a clip is paid; thus, $4.50
a day being made by each man, or something over $200 for the
season, or over $400 for 90 days out of the year. Although the
shearing of 90 sheep a day is the average, a great many will go
as high as no; and one man has been known to shear 125. Of
course, every man tries to shear as many as he can, and, owing
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. 6oi
to haste, frequently the animals are severely cut by the sharp shears.
If the wound is serious, the sheep immediately has its throat cut,
and is turned into mutton and disposed of to the butchers ; and the
shearer, if in the habit of frequently inflicting such wounds, is dis-
charged. In the shearing of these 80,000 sheep, a hundred or more
are injured to such an extent as to necessitate their being killed;
but the wool and meat are, of course, turned into profit.
" Although no herding is necessary, about two hundred or more
trained goats are kept on the island continually, which to all intents
and purposes take the place of the shepherd dogs so necessary in
mountainous districts where sheep are raised. Whenever the ani-
mals are to be removed from one quarter of the island to another,
the man in charge takes out with him several of the goats, exclaims
in Spanish, '' Cheva ! " meaning sheep. The goat, through its train-
ing, understands what is wanted, and immediately runs to the band ;
and the sheep accept it as their leader, following wherever it goes.
The goat in turn follows the man to whatever point he wishes to
take the band. To prevent the sheep from contracting disease, it is
necessary to give them a washing twice a year. Moore having so
many on hand, found it necessary to invent some way to accomplish
this whereby not so much expense would be incurred and time
wasted. After experimenting for some time, he had a ditch dug
eight feet in depth, a little over one foot in width, and one hundred
feet long. In this he put six hundred gallons of water, two hundred
pounds of sulphur, one hundred pounds of lime, and six pounds of
soda, all of which is heated to one hundred and thirty degrees. The
goats lead the sheep into a corral or trap at one end, and the animals
are compelled to swim through to the further end, thus securing a
bath and taking their medicine at one and the same time.
"The owner of the island and sheep, A. P. Moore, a few years
ago purchased the property from the widow of his deceased brother
Henry for $600,000. Owing to ill-health, he has rented it to his
brother Lawrence for $140,000 a year, and soon starts for Boston,
where he will settle down for the rest of his life. He still retains
an interest in the Santa Cruz Island ranch, which is about 25 miles
southeast of Santa Barbara. This island contains about 64,000
acres, and on it are 25,000 sheep. On Catanna Island, 60 miles east
of Santa Barbara, are 15,000 sheep. On Clemcnta Island, 80 miles
east of that city, are 10,000 sheep. Forty miles west of the same
city is San Miguel, on which are 2,000 sheep."
Sheep are raised both for food and clothing. Figures already
602
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
CAPTAIN JACK.
given show to what
enormous propor-
tions the industry
has grown, with
plenty of room • to
double, treble, and
quadruple it. The
best breeds for rais-
ing wool are select-
ed, and these are
tended with great
care and study, so
that improvement
in breeds and meth-
ods are marked and
rapid. One of the most remarkable sheep for yielding wool known to
herders is represented by the cut above — a ram of peculiar make-up,
with a fleece of such length and density as to weigh from twenty-two
to twenty-five pounds. His sire was Captain Jack ; hence the above is
Captain Jack, Jr. He com-
bines two leading features
in Merino breeding, length
of staple and density of
fleece, without the usual
accompaniment of super-
fluous oil, and massive
wrinkles with coarse and
hairy folds. He weighs
about a hundred and fifty
pounds, and is closely
built to the ground. That
God made him for useful-
ness there can be no ques-
tion ; for he yields as good
mutton for eating as he
does wool for weaving into
cloth.
A great variety of sheep
are raised in the New
West, so many that we
shall not attempt to enum- sheep shearing.
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING.
603
erate them here. A variety of breeds from foreign countries adds
some of the finest to Western flocks. The opinions of shepherds
differ in respect to the classification of different breeds of sheep, as
cattlemen differ respecting breeds of cattle.
■
1
^^^^^^^^^g'
-S
i
WBf*
,^. .jii'.-A.
* ^ ^^
f \
kilSV ■
■''ill,/
-\|||g
Mii^li
i
'^^
*^'w^' """^mI
-"% ^
■--^v i«?3^ '■ 1
^*^r-'^r.
:■ . ' '^\ \
^mi" '■•:.;
BAGGING WOOL FOR TRANSPORTATION.
Shearing time is a lively season, and sheep-shearers are a unique
class of men. Some of the California sheep-shearers excel all others
in the number they will divest of their fleeces in a single day. It is
claimed that some of them will shear 125 sheep per day, and that
the average of shearers per day, in disposing of a large flock, is 90.
6o4 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
The price paid for shearing is from four to six cents apiece, aver-
aging five cents.
The Union Pacific Railroad has erected extensive sheds for the
accommodation of wool-growers and their flocks. These sheds are
erected at convenient stations along the line. Sheep-raisers find it
more convenient to drive their flocks to the railway station, and
shear them there, than to shear them at home, and transport the
wool thither. The plan has proved successful. The sheds are suffi-
ciently large to accommodate from thirty to one hundred shearers
at a time. The railway company has also built large corrals in which
the sheep are folded. Then there are small enclosures for each
shearer, into which fifteen or twenty sheep can be put. When a
sheep is sheared the fleece is tied together by the shearer and put
into a bag hanging down from the loft. Every two feet these bags
are hanging, and when they are filled, men in the loft draw them
up, assort, weigh, and ship the wool.
The illustration represents the method of bagging wool for ship-
ment. When the shearer has completed his flock, he cries out
''check," and a man in waiting drives the sheep from the pen, and
other men soon fill it up again with another flock.
The sheep are counted after they are sheared. They are driven
from the pen through a small passage where they are readily counted
before entering the large corral beyond. The cut opposite repre-
sents the sheep going through this passage-way to the large enclosure.
A few years ago, on July 8, at Hugo, Col., twelve thousand sheep
belonging to the Holt Live Stock Company were sheared, and then
driven back to the ranch. Twelve thousand in one day creates
a scene scarcely second to a '' round-up " for the entertainment of
spectators !
A writer rehearses several incidents that are instructive to readers
who desire to know somewhat of the sheep business. Speaking of
the eastern friends at the ranch, he says : —
'' One very hot day they braved the heat themselves for the sake
of going out on the prairie to see how sheep keep cool. Instead of
scattering along the creek, seeking singly the shade of the bushes or
the tall trees only to be found near the creek, they huddle together
in the middle of the sunny field, more closely than ever, hang their
heads in the shadow of one another's bodies, and remain motionless
for hours. Not a single head is to be seen as you approach the herd;
only a broad level field of woolly backs, supported by a small forest
of little legs.
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAfSING.
605
"To see the sheep go in and out, night and morning, was a never-
failing amusement. Sometimes the ladies wandered down to the
corrals at sunset to see the herds come in, and you would have sup-
posed them to be waiting for a Fourth-of-July procession with ban-
ners, from the eagerness with which they exclaimed, ' Oh, here they
come ! there they are ! ' as the first faint tinkling of the bells was
heard in the distance. If two herds appeared at once from opposite
directions, the one with lambs had the 'right of way,' and Sly, the
sheep-dog, — not the only commander who has controlled troops by
COUNTING SHEEP.
k
sitting down in front of them, — would hold the other herd in check
till the lambs were safely housed.
''They had arrived just in the midst of lambing, and each herd, as
it came in at night, would number more than when it went out in the
morning, the little lambs that had been born on the prairie during
the day taking their constitutional of two or three miles back to the
corral that they had never seen, as easily and with as much dignity as
if they had known all about it for years. At the mature age of three
or four days, however, some of them would decide that they preferred
6o6
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
to remain on the open prairie ; then woe to the unhappy herder !
Many and many a night would the ladies walk out to meet the herd,
on the sole chance oi seeing the inimitable fun of such a catastrophe.
For pure, unadulterated amusement, I know of nothing equal to wit-
nessing the chase of a grown man over a boundless prairie after a lit-
tle creature less than a foot long and not more than three days old.
THE RUNAWAY LAMB
The running of a man for his hat is nothing to the entertainment of
such a spectator ; the struggles of the driver of a refractory mule are
nothing to the sufferings of such a herder. It is martyrdom without
any glory, and I believe the lamb is seldom caught or tired out with-
out the aid of a sheep-dog."
Sheep-raisers have exhausted their ingenuity in devising the most
convenient methods for feeding sheep. The following cut is .the
latest invention introduced into the New West : —
I
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING.
607
**The diameter of the rack is five and one-half feet; height,
four feet nine inches. Twenty-two bars in the outside rack ad-
mit of twenty-one sheep feeding at once. The bars, one and one-
half inches in diameter, are made to turn easily in the top and
bottom sockets. There is a space of seven inches between the
outside and the inside bars ; the latter, thirty-three in number, are
four inches apart and a square inch in size. Within this rank of
bars is a wooden cone, three feet and nine inches in diameter at the
base, and three feet high. This cone, with the arrangement which
holds the two ranks of bars at the top of the rack, forms the recepta-
cle of the forage. A plinth, three inches wide, is attached to the top
and another to the bottom
of the rack, outside the exte-
rior rank of bars, and com-
pletes the whole.
*' The following are the
advantages of this rack : be-
ing circular, each sheep can
feed without annoying its
neighbor, and the ewes and
lambs are thus freed from
all chance of injury. The
bars revolving on their sup-
ports, the sheep do not rub
their necks in feeding. If
the rack is placed under a
shoot or trap-door, the hay or
straw can be dropped into it,
without falling on the sheep,
and thereby soiling the wool. If, instead of forage, roots are given
to the sheep, the bottom of the rack, with its plinth, forms a conven-
ient receptacle for them."
The editor of the Journal of Agricultiirc, speaking of the habits of
sheep, says : —
" Sheep adapt themselves to a wider latitude than any domesti-
cated animal, except dogs. For more than a thousand years they
have been raised with profit in Iceland, where the climate is so cold
that few cultivated crops can be produced. They are also raised with
profit in all the countries of Europe and Asia that border on the
North Sea. Sheep raising has lately been undertaken in Patagonia
with excellent promise of success. South Africa and all the islands
A NOVEL SHEEP RACK.
6o8 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
in the Indian Ocean are found to be well adapted *,o the raising of
sheep. Spain and Asiatic Turkey have long produced most excellent
wool, although the climate of these countries is very warm. Sheep
do well in every State and Territory in this country, and are better
adapted to poor land than any other domesticated animal except the
goat. There is economy in keeping a few sheep in pastures that are
chiefly devoted to other animals, for the reason that the former will
eat many kinds of weeds and grasses that the latt^"^ will leave."
A WOMAN ON A CATTLE RANCH.
This is a veritable experience received from the lips of the woman
herself. We do not present it because it is at all exceptional in
regard to hardships and checkered experiences. Indeed, it is the
story of one who enjoyed considerable more of privilege and comfort
than falls to the lot of the average ranch-life. She was young in
years and in matrimony. Her husband bought out a ranchman in
the New West, seventy-five miles from the town in which he was
temporarily sojourning. He was to remove thither to spend about
eight weeks in putting things in running order, and to establish him-
self as a cattleman. His wife proposed to accompany him and share
ranch-life with him for this brief period.
It was one of the hottest July days ever known in the New West
when she started with her husband and one cowboy for the ranch.
A long drought had parched the earth, and the streams on the plains
were dry, adding intensity to the heat of the day. The burning rays
of the sun beat down upon the two occupants of the open ranch-
wagon, and the poor horses wilted under the great heat and a heavy
load. Not a drop of water was found on the way until after four
o'clock in the afternoon. The lips of the weary travellers became
parched and swollen, and, but for the free use of lemons, which were
thoughtfully provided in the morning, would have cracked and bled.
The sight of water about four o'clock gladdened man and beast.
One or two hours later, on approaching a town where they pur-
posed to spend the night, the wagon sunk into the mud to the hubs
of the wheels in crossing an irrigating ditch. The tired horses vainly
tried to pull it out, until, exhausted, they refused to pull more, and
the disgusted stockman sat down upon the bank of the ditch, the
very picture of despairing weariness.
" Going to stay here all night .? " inquired his better half in a tone
that was a cross between facetiousness and bitter disappointment.
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING.
609
"I shall stay here till help comes along," answered the husband.
Sure enough, within a few minutes, a man with a pair of horses
appeared upon the scene, and kindly offered to help our stockman
out of his difficulty. The four horses together pulled the wagon out
of the mud, and on that night our heroine slept upon a soft bed in
a country inn, instead of under a tent. On the following morning,
refreshed and happy, and supplied with a keg of water, that the pain-
GOING TO THE RANCH
ful experience of the previous day might not be repeated, our trav-
ellers continued their journey. At noon they came upon an old
deserted stable in which the horses were fed, and the travellers them-
selves regaled with an ample lunch. At night they spread a tent,
and were cooking an inviting supper when a thunder-shower burst
upon them in great fury, deluging the tent, putting out their fire,
and spoiling the food, as well as drenching the occupants. Supper-
less and soaked, they spread their blankets for the night, and lay
down to wakefulness instead of dreams. However, they came out of
6io marvilLs of the new west.
the hardship with flying colors, and, before noon on the next day,
took possession of the ranch, and commenced ranch-life. In a letter
to a relative, the woman said : —
*' Well, here I am at camp, and like it very much so far. I am
terrible lonely to-day. G was obliged to go away this morning,
and will not be back until to-morrow. I am here alone with Mrs.
's brother ... I had nine and ten in my family the first two
days ; then four ; last night seven ; and to-day two. The men have
now gone out on the calf round-up, and will be gone three weeks,
probably. ... I cannot give you much of an idea of the camp here.
The house is a good one, and unusually nice for a cow camp. It is
stone inside and out, and rough every way ; but we are very com-
fortable. It stands low down in a gulch, with hills front and back,
which cut off all views ; and still it is pleasant. We have two large
rooms, now furnished with chairs, two home-made tables, two home-
made bedsteads, and empty boxes for additional conveniences. . . .
The flies here were enough to craze one, but we brought some net-
ting with us, and C made screens for the doors and windows, so
that we are protected from their raids. . . . We have cows, ducks,
hens, a dog nearly as large as Major, and a nice cat. ... I have not
made any butter yet, but shall very soon, for I miss it fearfully. I
have been cooking, cleaning, and arranging things generally, but
shall have more leisure soon, as my family will be smaller. One of
the men helps me. He cooks for the boys on the round-up, and
between helps me. I do all the cooking except the meat. The men
appear to think that my bread and pies were made to eat. I made a
large loaf of brown bread for supper last night, and the boys just
devoured it. Don't worry about my staying alone, for G says
he will never leave me without C , who is trusty, and is hired to
work about the house, milk, and do chores. Crazy [the name of her
pony] knew me when I came, and behaved as cunning as ever. I
shall begin riding her soon. I would not part with her for love nor
money. ... If you do not hear from me every week, don't worry,
for something may happen to prevent us going to the post-office,
which is twenty-five miles distant. But you must write every week
as usual, for it would be disappointing indeed to send so far for let-
ters and find none. We send to the office once in two weeks sure,
and as much oftener as we can. I have nothing further to say, ex-
cept that I am getting along all right — have four in my family now,
and one of the boys helps me in the house. All of them are kind
and obliging, and never allow me to bring a pail of water from the
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING.
6ii
spring." Of course, she could not complain much of great hard-
ships.
The spring was one of the finest in all the New West, with a
house over it, and a small pond behind it, into which, at times, the
overflow empties. There was a barn, shed, and henhouse, also, with
two corrals. A tent was also spread on the grounds to accommodate
the overflow of cowboys and visitors at night. As the hospitality of
THEIR RANCH HOME
that country provided free beds and board for transient comers, a
tent arrangement was absolutely necessary. From three to twelve
transient lodgers was often the quota for whom provision was made.
**I have cooked three dinners in a day," she said to the writer;
**the first for the family ; the second, one or two hours later, for two
newcomers ; and I had scarcely washed the dishes after the second
dinner, when a fresh arrival of another man made a third dinner
necessary."
6l2 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Ham, codfish, fresh beef and veal, venison, poultry, antelope, and
rabbits, supplied the larder with a variety of meats that would be
luxurious in the East, — not all at the same time, of course, but as
circumstances favored. Sometimes the bill of fare was reduced to
ham or codfish without potatoes or any other vegetable. As it was
the ranchman's first season, begun in July, he had no. garden, and
therefore no vegetables, except when they were purchased at the
nearest market, from forty to sixty miles away. Sometimes, how-
ever, a neighboring ranchman, coming that way, would bring them a
welcome present from his garden. Tea and coffee, especially the
latter, were prominent in the daily bill of fare.
The nearest neighbors (all of the masculine gender) were eighteen
miles distant, and the nearest woman thirty miles away. Of the
latter our heroine wrote to a friend, " There are several women at
, but I think they must be stuck-up, for they have not called
upon me yet, and they are only thirty miles from here."
The following extracts from her letters to a relative will furnish
still more interesting information of a woman's life on a ranch : —
" The round-up reached here on Saturday, and we have been full
ever since, — nine all the time, and twelve last night in my family.
'* G is going away again this week. He is going to , two
hundred miles distant, to buy horses. I expect he will be gone ten
days, perhaps longer. I dread it very much. There will be two men
here, but it will be lonely enough even then.
'' I climbed the Buttes last week. They are over a hundred feet
high, made of clay or adobe, the top being petrified like stone.
G would not go with me, as he thought it was too hazardous.
In one place we had to pass round a curve for fifteen feet on a shelf
just wide enough to stand upon. At another point we had to climb
up perpendicularly fifteen feet, by means of notches cut for the feet.
One of the men went with me because G would not. My cour-
age nearly failed me before the feat was accomplished, but the splen-
did view from the summit paid me.
*'The men kill many rattlesnakes here. They killed twelve in
one day. At another time they killed three in half an hour. Ed. and
I were riding one day last week, and his horse stepped on one that
was coiled up. It threw the snake over, and he went into his hole
in a hurry. Our dog was bitten by one a few days ago, and his nose
was badly swollen for a day or two, and that was all. Rattlesnake
bites do not injure dogs.
*'We do not have fresh meat at all just now, and ham is getting
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISfNG.
613
stale to me. Ed. has just killed a duck, and we shall have that to-
morrow. I am sick of making biscuit. I had them three times a
day, and from twenty to thirty each time.
'* I have a plenty of eggs and milk, and make puddings and
custards. I shall wash
to-morrow; Ed. will i
help me, and then wasli
for the boys, and he
will help me iron. H
is very handy and very
willing. We miss veg-
etables very much. I
would like a cucumber.
We had a squash to-day
that some one of the
boys bought me, and it
was nice. We have not
even potatoes now, and
I scarcely know how
fruit looks.
'' We had fourteen
letters in the last mail,
and you may be sure
that we enjoyed them.
Last night Ed. was
taken sick, fortunately
after I had retired, and
he had a terrible fit. I
could hear him talk
as crazy as could be,
and it was an hour be-
fore he was conscious.
He came near having
another this morning,
but we worked over
him and prevented it.
C takes care of him, and I have not been alone with him
all. I hope G will not have to go away again, but I sometimes
think if he does I go too, wherever it may be. . . . Two of the men
usually sleep in the house, — one on the bed G made, and the
other on the floor; the others sleep in the tent, which they prefer."
CLIMBING THE BUTTE.
at
6 14 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
The '' Ed." referred to had a thrilling history. His father was the
proprietor of a leading, daily journal in a large city of the East, — a
man of wealth and position. His mother, before her marriage, was a
professor in a leading college for females, — an accomplished woman.
Their son had received an excellent education, and was familiar with
the refinement and style of wealthy families in a large city ; but now
he was a cowboy, subject to terrible fits, which he claimed were
brought on "by smoking cigarettes." His employer and wife had
no doubt that the drink-curse was the real cause of his absence from
home. As there were no liquors on the ranch, and no place to obtain
them for miles, their views on the subject were not verified beyond
contradiction. But on the evening of his §ickness, as rehearsed
above, he went to Mrs. and said : —
'' I am going to smoke a cigarette, and I shall have a fit after it.
You had better retire."
Scarcely thinking that he was in earnest, with a facetious remark
she bade him good night and went to bed. Then followed what she
described, in which we see some evidence that cigarettes were the
cause of his fits, or delirunn tremens, if that be a more appropriate
name. In her next letter she relates the outcome of Ed.'s sickness.
*' I closed my last letter rather hurriedly. Ed. grew worse steadily.
The night before G came he had a terrible spell. Twice we
thought he was dying. It took C and I to hold him on the bed.
The night G reached home he had two fits. Two men could
scarcely hold him while he was in the first one ; but his strength was
greatly reduced when the last one occurred. He suffered fearfully,
but imagined that he was in heaven with his mother, who died when
he was too young to remember her. The next day he was so weak
that two men were obliged to lift him into the wagon, and he went
off crying ab if his heart would break. We made him a bed in the
wagon, and sent him to , and from there by rail to . C
went with him, and has not yet returned. We hardly thought he
would reach there alive ; but the man who came back with the team
said that he was better when he reached ; so Vv^e hope he will
come out all right."
Just seven years after the foregoing was written, in reply to the
question, "What became of Ed..^ " this woman answered : —
"Poor fellow! we don't know. He recovered by good medical
treatment, and left , and we have never seen or heard from him
since."
It is not strange that, by this time, Mrs. should write to a
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. 615
friend, "Certainly I have variety enough in my life to keep from
becoming stagnant."
More extracts from her letters will afford the reader still more
light.
'' We have a very nice cooking-stove, as large as the one in your
winter kitchen. I have made all my bread so far with baking-powder.
I should think you were crazy to ask what I do with my washing.
Why, I wash it, iron it, wear it, and wash it again. I have every
convenience for washing, and do not lift a pail of water, or turn the
wringer, or clean up. We have splendid water under the spring-
house, and a half dozen other good springs around us where the
cattle drink, and water-holes also. My kitchen is large, and I have
no trouble in providing for all the men by putting the two tables
together. There is no need of furnishing napkins, for G and I
and Ed. are the only ones of the crowd who ever saw one. I made
four cream pies and a cocoanut pie yesterday, and how quickly they
vanished before the hungry boys !
" I must stop at once, for I hear a wagon ride up. ... It was
two men, one from , whom I was delighted to see. He brought
me a bushel of potatoes and a parcel of beets and radishes, and I am
eating a radish now. They are so nice ! I got them a dinner, —
hot biscuit, venison steak, tomatoes, cream pie, and coffee. They
thought they would call again when they got hungry.
" I rode ten miles one day last week, and saw three deer, — scared
them up not ten feet off. We sent C out next morning to shoot
one, as we were living on bacon and codfish, with no potatoes. He
killed one, and we have feasted ever since. It is very nice eating.
The venison we get is not what you get in the East.
'' We have any amount of fleas here, and I am half eaten up by
them. We have ants, also, but I brought some borax with me, and
they have disappeared before it. You ask me what I wear. I wear
a shade hat, black Canton, with blue veil on it when I ride, and my
scalp at other times.
*' We have dug a cellar, or, what is here called a 'dug-out,' in the
side of the hill, which will have a roof over it soon, covered with dirt.
It is what they call a cellar here."
When lodgings were somewhat crowded, one of the men slept in
the above-mentioned dug-out. One night, just before the mistress
of the ranch had retired, he came rushing into the house for his gun,
shouting '' Skunk ! skunk ! " This disagreeable animal was at home
in that country, and, in his peregrinations, on that night, dropped
6l6 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
into the dug-out, with no expectation of meeting a cowboy there.
But he did, and actually travelled across his bed, startling the human
occupant of the place by his cool impudence. The skunk was as
much alarmed as the cowboy in the end, and fled to parts unknown
before the latter returned with his gun. Seventy skunks were shot
about the ranch from August to November, proving that this unpop-
ular creature thrives full as well in the New West as he does in
the East.
Once, during her stay at the ranch, Mrs. visited with
her husband, nearly sixty miles away, to make some purchases, and
hire a tenement. She camped out one night each way, going and
coming, and enjoyed it hugely. On the way back, she discovered an
antelope at a distance ; whereupon her husband let drive his six-
shooter just to see the wild creature run. He was too far away to be
hit, but not too far to be scared, the ranchman thought. What was
the surprise of Mrs. , and her liege lord, too, to see the animal
drop, and not run. Singularly enough the ball took effect in the ante-
lope's head, and he gave up the ghost. It was an accident, however,
not the skill of the ranchman. The former was not more surprised
to be hit than the latter was to be the hitter. The wild game was
carried in triumph to the ranch, where hunger revelled on his carcass.
Here are incidents sufficient to show the reader what the best sort
of ranch-life is to an intelligent woman. It is crowded with variety,
the unexpected, and the marvellous.
CATTLE KINGS.
We shall close this department with the photographs and brief
biographical sketches of seven cattle kings, as in the third and fourth
departments we presented railroad and mining kings. While our
space limits us to seven successful and widely-known cattlemen, 'we
may say that their number is very large in the New W>st. Intelli-
gent, enterprising, and persistent, they have hewed their way through
all opposition and difficulties to wealth and influence. It has been a
hard-fought battle to most of them, but their victories are all the
grander for that.
JOHN H. ILIFF.
John H. Iliff was born Dec. i8, 1831, the son of a well-to-do farmer
near Zanesville, O. He attended college at Delaware, O., after which
his father offered to invest seven thousand five hundred dollars in a
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. 6lJ
farm for him, near his own, if the young man would remain upon it.
But the son declined the offer, saying, " No, give me the five hundred
dollars and let me go West." Going to Kansas, he remained three
years. Here the Pike's Peak gold excitement of 1859 foi-ind him,
and he was among the first to cross the Plains to the new Eldorado.
Realizing that the army of gold-seekers must be fed, he invested all
his means in a stock of groceries and provisions, for which he found
a ready market upon his arrival in Colorado. He engaged in business
in Denver for a short time, but invested all he had in a small herd of
cattle. This herd he drove to the northern part of the Territory for
pasturage. The Union Pacific Railroad was being pushed westward
through southern Wyoming with all possible dispatch, and at Chey-
enne Mr. Iliff found so excellent a market that his herd of cattle
proved better than a gold mine. He found a vast stretch of country
reaching from the South Platte River to Wyoming, and from near the
eastern base of the Rocky Mountains to Nebraska — a region larger
than Massachusetts — occupied only by buffalo and antelope. His
mind quickly grasped the possibilities of the situation. From this
time on his qourse was one of steady and rapid progress. He made
the cattle business on the plains a study, giving to it his entire atten-
tion and his best efforts. He mastered every detail, and as the busi-
ness developed new phases he was equal for every emergency. The
influence of his life upon the pastoral interests of Colorado and the
West cannot be overestimated. At the time of his death he owned
about twenty thousand acres of pasturage, including some of the finest
watering-places and grazing-valleys in the region where his herds
roamed. These herds numbered not less than fifty thousand head,
from which he marketed an average of about thirteen thousand head
per year. No single individual has ever built up or controlled so vast
a business in live-stock in this Rocky Mountain country. He was
temperate in his habits, loving and true to his family, honest and just
in his dealings, a desirable neighbor, and a most useful citizen.
JARED L. BRUSH.
J. L. Brush was born in Claremont County, O., in 1837, so that
he is now just fifty years of age, though he is so hale, hearty, and vig-
orous that he appears much younger. His parents were in comforta-
ble circumstances, and afforded their son the best opportunity for
intellectual training which the schools of that day and locality pro-
vided. Being a thoughtful, obedient youth, willing to work and apt
6l8 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
to do, he contented himself with remaining at home, working upon
the farm, and doing whatever else seemed to be necessary.
He was twenty-two years of age when the discovery of gold in
Colorado created intense excitement all over the country. In com-
mon with thousands of young men, he caught the excitement, though
his decision did not wholly contemplate mining. He believed that
the Rocky Mountain region was opening a wide and inviting field for
aspiring young men in various departments of activity. After care-
ful thought and investigation he decided to ''go West," and 1859
found him a citizen of what is now the "Centennial State."
At first he engaged in mining, and was the first discoverer of gold
in Russell Gulch. His success, however, was not particularly stimu-
lating, though his search for gold was by no means a failure. After
mining two years, he purchased a farm and run it, at the same time
making two freighting trips annually over the "plains," from Mis-
souri River to Denver. For five years he continued farming and
freighting, hauling hay in the winters to the mountain mining-camps
for sale. He began, also, at this period, to deal in cattle, and made
his first purchases along the Missouri River. He commenced the
cattle business in a small way, but gradually enlarged his trade, until
now his own herd numbers three thousand, and he has a partnership
in sixteen thousand more. His ranches are located in the southeast-
ern part of Weld County, Col. He removed to that county in 1862,
and has lived there ever since, his business growing upon his hands
from year to year.
In the autumn of 1883, Mr. Brush said to the author, " Less than
twenty-five years ago I drove a freight team over the plains." The
remark was made to show the marvellous enterprise and progress
which a quarter of a century had wrought. It required a good share
of pluck to carry freight over the "plains " at that time ; for Indians
were on the alert with tomahawk and scalping-knife. The United
States government was under the necessity of maintaining regiments
of soldiers in that region to save freighters and others from Indian
massacre. Mr. Brush had the usual experience of pioneers with the
Rocky Mountain red men, escaping with his life only because provi-
dential events favored him. Even later, in 1867, when he was en-
gaged in the cattle business, and had a ranch only fourteen miles
from the spot where Greeley was laid out three years thereafter, the
savages made a raid upon his ranch, and killed twelve men, one of
whom was his brother. Mr. Brush was absent at the time ; had he
been at home, he must have shared the fate of his cattlemen ; and
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. 619
we should not have had the privilege of adding his portrait or sketch
of his life to our collection.
Mr. Brush is known as a wise, sagacious business man, the arti-
ficer of his own fortune, honest, reliable, and influential. He is
deeply interested in the welfare of his adopted State, and has repre-
sented Weld County several times in the Legislature. He resides at
Greeley, where he is respected by all who know him, for his business
ability and uprightness of character. For thirty years his life has
been a checkered one, necessarily involving many hardships and
struggles ; but his industry, tact, perseverance, and honesty have
won for him success, and with it the public confidence.
CHARLES LUX.
Charles Lux was one of the most eminent citizens of California,
at the time of his death, a few months ago. He was born in Ger-
many, in 1823, and came to this country when he was fifteen years
of age. He cast his lot in New York City, where he became a
butcher-boy, and worked early and late and hard, and laid up money.
The gold excitement lured him to California in 1850, and he settled
in San Francisco, where he continued to work in the butcher's busi-
ness for one Captain North. From this time, his biographer in the
San Francisco Chronicle shall describe his career : —
*'To him (North) young Lux proved a treasure. He was inde-
fatigable, never seemed to need sleep, never forgot anything, never
was in a bad temper.
"They worked together for about a year; then the captain, who
shared the roving disposition of most Californians of that day, pro-
posed to sell out to his assistant, and the offer was accepted. The
butcher's sign was changed to Charles Lux, and for several years he
carried on business there, making money and friends. About 1854
or 1855 he took into partnership a man named Edmundson, who is
still alive. They embarked in the wholesale cattle business in a
small way and did well. After a year or two, for some reason or
other, the partnership was dissolved.
"It was in 1857 that he made his first joint operations with Mr.
Miller. They proved profitable, and the two men grew to be inti-
mate. Striking contrasts in many respects, they were alike in many
essentials. Both were men of sturdy integrity, close habits of busi-
ness, and that power of concentration which secures fortune, when
more showy gifts, dispersed over a wider range, might fail to obtain
620 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
it. Both were Germans, Mr. Miller was born in Gutenburg. In
1858 they formed a partnership under the name of Miller & Lux,
which lasted till death dissolved it last week, and during which not
one shadow ever darkened the brightness of their friendship. In the
previous year a still more momentous change had occurred in Mr.
Lux's life. A few years previously a gentleman named Potter was
blown up and killed by an explosion on board the San Rafael boat.
He left a widow and son. The lady, whose early beauty is still
remembered, and the loveliness of whose character is known to all
who have the privilege of her acquaintance, consented in 1857 to ac-
cept Mr. Lux's addresses, and they were married. It was a happy
marriage for him. His wife, a Rhode Islander, and a member of the
Presbyterian church, made his home bright ; and nothing pleased him
better than to place his purse at her disposal for use in the benevo-
lent works in which she has been perseveringly engaged for thirty
years. There is hardly a charitable body in the city of which she is
not one of the trustees or patronesses ; hardly one that is unacquainted
with Mr. Lux's checks.
''The first important purchase which they made was part of the
Santa Rita ranch in Merced. This was bought in 1863 of Dunphy
& Hildred ; the amount of land was two Spanish leagues, eight
thousand eight hundred and eighteen acres. As the firm's stock of
cattle increased, and as neighbors desired to sell, Miller & Lux, who
always kept ready money on hand, bought field after field and ranch
after ranch, until now the property covers the enormous area of six
hundred thousand acres, — a principality.
'* About the same time Miller & Lux bought two adjoining ranches,
known as the Dequisquito ranch, and the La Marias Muertes ranch, —
the one in Monterey, the other in Santa Clara. These were two old
Spanish grants, and embraced an area of about twenty-four thousand
acres.
" The next purchase made was the Canada de San Lorenzo, in the
extreme southern portion of Monterey County. This property is
familiarly known as the Peach Tree ranch. Since the first purchase,
Miller & Lux have added to it as occasion offered, and it now covers
thirty-five thousand acres.
'' It was in 1869 that Miller & Lux began the purchases of land in
Kern and Tulare counties. The purchases have been followed up by
additions ever since, so that now the Kern-Tulare ranch belonging to
the firm covers one hundred and fourteen thousand acres.
"These are only some of the lands owned by the firm in this State.
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. 62 1
They do not include such properties as Mr. Charles Lux's private
ranch of two thousand acres in San Mateo County, or other pieces of
land in other counties. Outside of the State Miller & Lux own the
Glenn ranch in Humboldt and Washoe counties — a tract of twenty-
five thousand acres, on which they have a pretty bunch of cattle.
This was bought as long ago as 1860-64. They also bought, in asso-
ciation with a cattleman named Oberfeldt, a tract of twenty-five thou-
sand acres, or thereabouts, in Baker and Grant counties, Oregon.
This controls a vast amount of range, and feeds many thousand cattle.
" These purchased lands do not include the leased lands, which
cover a large area. The firm pays not less than $20,000 a year for
lands which it uses for pasture; one man alone receives $14,000 a
year from this source.
"Turning now to the use to which this enormous landed estate is
put, it is found that Miller & Lux own more cattle than any one else
on this coast, and probably more than Hunter & Evans of St. Louis.
No large cattle-dealer can tell how many horned cattle or sheep he
owns. He can only form an approximate estimate. Thus, Miller &
Lux have been in the habit of reckoning that they owned 60,000 to
75,000 cattle, about 80,000 sheep, 6,000 to 8,000 hogs, and ' several '
thousand horses. To take care of these the services of 800 to 1,000
men are permanently required.
"The cattle are brought into the city — a few are sold to country
towns — at the rate of about 1,600 a month, and slaughtered here in
the three slaughter-houses owned by the firm in Butchertown. Be-
sides steers. Miller & Lux kill 6,000 or 7,000 sheep a month, and
about 2,000 hogs. Thus they supply, to feed this city, an average of
52 steers, 200 sheep, and 70 hogs daily.
" It need hardly be said that, with such a business, Mr. Charles
Lux died rich. It is very difficult to estimate the value of an es-
tate so large and so widely scattered as his. To administer it suc-
cessfully requires a great deal of work. There are few men with
large amounts of money who are willing to put in the work necessary
to conduct such a business. If it were realized gradually, as occasion
offered, it would probably be found to be worth something between
four and five millions.
" Mr. Lux was always in a good temper, always smiling, with a
pleasant word for every one, and his serenity went below the surface.
He never broke up a butcher because he could not pay ; but, on the
contrary, he invariably kept on supplying tradesmen whom he knew
to be insolvent, and when he felt reasonably certain that» he would
622 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
■never get paid. He was always on the lookout to help somebody.
To the members of his own family in New York and Germany, and
to the relatives of his wife, he ever acted the part of a generous,
whole-souled father."
R. G. HEAD.
R. G. Head was born in Saline County, Missouri, in 1847, ^^<^^ i^
now in his fortieth year. When six years old his father moved from
Missouri to Caldwell County, Texas. When thirteen years of age
young Head entered the employ of Bullard & McPhetridge, drovers,
who were preparing to move a herd of cattle to Missouri, receiving
thirteen dollars per month salary. The breaking out of the war pre-
vented the drive, and the herd was disposed of to the Confederate
government. Between the age of eleven and thirteen he received
the benefit of some nine months' attendance at the public schools,
which is the sum total of educational advantages enjoyed by him. He
remained on his father's farm, or ranch, until about sixteen years old,
when he entered the Confederate service, and served until the close
of the war. Returning home, he worked one year upon a farm and
then entered upon the remarkably successful career which brought
him to the position he now holds among the stockmen of our country.
He was not quite nineteen years old when he entered the service of
Col. John J. Myers, the pioneer drover of Texas, who drove the first
herds to Abilene, Kansas, which place was then a mere post, con-
taining but half a dozen habitations. Mr. Head camped a herd of
cattle on the spot where the city of Wichita, Kansas, now stands,
when not a white man resided there, but as many Indians as there
are now white inhabitants. He began his service with Colonel Myers
on a salary of ^30 dollars per month, which was steadily advanced
until the third year, when he took entire control of his employer's trail
business at a salary of $1,800 per year and expenses. He continued
with Colonel Myers for seven years, during which time he drove herds
to Abilene, Wichita, Great Bend, Ellsworth, and Dodge City, Kansas ;
and also to Cheyenne, Wyoming, Salt Lake, Utah, the Humbolt River
in Nevada, and across to California, also to the various Indian agen-
cies on the upper Missouri River and Black Hills country. His
business relations with Colonel Myers were terminated in 1873 by the
death of the latter gentleman. In 1875 he assumed the general
management of the extensive cattle business of Ellison, Deweese, &
Bishop, of San Antonio, Texas, handling from 30,000 to 50,000 cattle
annually, iln the spring of 1878 the last-named firm dissolved, and
CATTLE KINGS.
624 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Mr. Head formed a partnership with Mr. Bishop, member of the old
firm above, for the handUng of cattle on the ranch and trail. The
firm of Bishop & Head existed until 1883, when the prevailing high
prices induced Mr. Head to insist upon a sale of the partnership prop-
erty, which was accomplished over the friendly protest of Mr. Bishop.
In May, 1883, he accepted the management of the business of the
Prairie Cattle Company, the largest company of the kind in the world.
He filled this position for three years, during which time he mar-
keted from the ranches of the company over 54,000 cattle, netting
over $1,300,000, and branded for the company, from its herds, more
than 83,000 calves, and after paying all expenses, interest on deben-
ture bonds, and also paying dividends to its stockholders amounting in
three years to forty two per cent of the capital invested, left the com-
pany with some 5,000 more cattle than when he assumed the manage-
ment of its business, and an undivided surplus of about $80,000.
His salary for his service with this company was $20,000 per annum.
When he severed his connection with the Prairie Cattle Company, its
employees presented him with a solid silver service, costing $1,500.
In 1886 he was elected president of the International Range Asso-
ciation, representing the live stock industry of the Plains, from the
Gulf of Mexico to British Columbia, and west to the Pacific Coast.
He was re-elected unanimously to the same position in 1887. He
was one of the original promoters of the recently formed American
Cattle Trust, and now resides in Denver, C^^u-ado, and is the gen-
eral manager of the entire ranching interests of that association.
He is one of the principal owners in the Phoenix Farm & Ranch
Company, of Mora County, New Merico, which is perhaps one of the
most desirable and productive, as also the most systematically con-
ducted, properties in that Territory, if not in the entire West.
Mr. Head is also a large stockholder in the Fort Stockton Live-
stock & Land Company, of Texas, comprising 50,000 acres of land,
20,000 of which are under irrigation. The company owns 30,000
cattle and 500 horses. He also owns a farm of above 700 acres, in a
high state of cultivation, at his old home, in Caldwell County, Texas.
Mr. Head is married and is the father of two daughters, to whose
comfort and happiness, with that of their beloved mother, he is a most
devoted husband and father. A busier and more successful life bi-
ographers are not permitted to chronicle, nor one that is nobler and
purer.
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. 625
THOMAS H. LAWRENCE.
Thomas H. Lawrence was born at Circleville, Ohio, in 185 1.
Having obtained the education offered by the common schools, he
accepted a clerical position in New York City, and later a position
of the same kind in St. Louis, Mo. In 1868 he went to West Texas,
where he began the career which brought him into prominence as one
of the most intelligent and successful cattlemen of the Plains. After
four years of cowboy life, Mr. Lawrence moved a herd by trail to
Ellsworth, Kansas, and the following year made his second drive,
this time to Nebraska.
In the fall of 1873 he formed a partnership with Wm. C. Irwine,
and with him established a cattle ranch near Ogallala, on the South
Platte River, in Nebraska, where they placed 800 cattle. This part-
nership was terminated at the expiration of two years, when Mr,
Lawrence joined Messrs. J. H. and G. M. Bosler, under the firm
name of Bosler Bros. & Lawrence. They operated a large ranch
on the North Platte, and continued in business until 1883, when Mr.
Lawrence sold out to his partners. He then removed to New Mex-
ico, where he assumed the management of the Dubuque Cattle Com-
pany, in which he is a large owner, and still retains the management.
The esteem in which Mr. Lawrence is held by his brother-stockmen
is evidenced by the fact that he has been chairman of the executive
committee of the Northern New Mexico Stock-Growers' Association
since 1883. He is also one of the owners of the Phoenix Farm
and Ranch, of Mora County, New Mexico, — the most valuable,
and extensive combined farm and ranch in the Territory. It is
stocked with 9,000 head of cattle, has 18,000 acres of pasture lands
enclosed, and several thousand acres under irrigation and tillage.
Mr. Lawrence is married, has two children, and his home at Las
Vegas, New Mexico, is that of a gentleman.
JOHN W. SNYDER.
Mr. Snyder was born in Yazoo County, Mississippi, June 21,
1837. He was scarcely three years old when his father died ; but
he was left in the care of a pious, loving mother, who was obliged to
move, first to Arkansas, and then to Missouri, in order to feed and
clothe her children. She was brave and true, and John and his
brothers were ditto. Hard work and rigid economy kept the wolf of
hunger at bay, but left very small opportunities for schooling. John
626 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
received about one year of poor log-house schooling up to nineteen
years of age.
At nineteen, John and Dudley borrowed money enough to buy a
team and load of apples, which they carried to Austin, Texas, six
hundred miles, and sold at a good profit. They remained in Texas
two years, farming with fair success, then began to drive horses to
Missouri for sale, and take back apples to Texas, where they soon
removed their mother and settled.
In 1 86 1, John was worth one thousand and six hundred dollars,
and he resolved to attend school. But a few months only elapsed
when the late civil war broke out, and he enlisted as a private, but
was soon promoted to second lieutenant, and then captain. He and
his two brothers were among the three hundred volunteers, who, on
board two small steamers, attacked the Haridet Lane in Galveston
harbor, captured that man-of-war, and retook the city. Later, in
Louisiana, under General Banks, his horse was shot under him.
Soon after returning from the war, he and his two brothers, Dudley
and Thomas, began the cattle trade in company, and this grew upon
their hands until it became enormous, and the "Snyde Brothers"
became known, not only in Texas, but throughout the New West, for
wealth, enterprise, and integrity of character. They fought the Indians,
hard times, and mighty obstacles in hewing their way to success.
When Mr. Iliff died, J. W. Snyder & Co. were under contract to
deliver 25,000 cattle at his ranch in Colorado. Mrs. Iliff, familiar
with their enterprise and integrity, besought them to take charge of
the immense herd which her husband left, and in April, 1878, J. W.
Snyder assumed that responsibility, and the first year shipped 14,053
beeves for her to market. In the spring of 1881 they purchased the
immense Iliff herd, Mrs. Iliff retaining an interest in the business.
On Jan. i, 1887, J. W. Snyder & Co. owned 30,000 cattle, 275 horses,
and 20,000 acres of land in Colorado; and 17,000 cattle, 750 horses
and 218,000 acres of land in Texas.
Mr. Snyder married in March, 1867, and to-day has an interesting
family ; and he is never so happy as when he is in their society. He
is a consistent and active member of the Methodist Church. It is a
common remark that the Snyders believe in carrying religion into
their business. They enforce rigid regulations among their cowboys
against swearing, drinking, gambling, and Sabbath-breaking. They
give away large sums of money. Evidently thev act on Wesley's
rule, — "make all you can, save all you can, and give all you can."
A friend says of John W. : —
MARVELS OF STOCK-RAISING. 627
His life is gentle, and the elements
So mixed in him, that nature might stand up
And say to all the world.
This is a man."
JOHN T. LYTLE.
The subject of this sketch was born in Adams County, Pennsyl-
vania, in October, 1844. After acquiring the limited advantages of
the public schools of his native State, young Lytle began the battle
of life by going to the vicinity of San Antonio, Texas, where he
obtained employment as a cowboy in the spring of i860. After two
years' experience he assumed the management of a ranch, but after
one year in this position he gave up his peaceful vocation to take part
in the war between the States. He enlisted in Company H, Colonel
Wood's regiment, Texas cavalry, and served in Louisiana and Texas,
until the close of the struggle. He returned to the ranch he had left
to become a soldier, and managed it for three years, when he began
business for himself, with a few cattle in Frio County, Texas. In
1 87 1 he took the trail with one thousand head of cattle, for his first
northern drive. Meeting with success, he was encouraged to follow
up the business each succeeding year with largely increasing num-
bers, until 1878, when he drove twenty thousand head. During these
years the herds were accompanied by him, but from 1879 ^^ i^^5
inclusive, while he moved thirty-five thousand cattle north annually,
he did not take the trail in person. From 1871 to 1885 inclusive.
Captain Lytle moved over three hundred thousand cattle from Texas
to the North. In 1878 Captain Lytle added the sheep industry to
his already large live-stock interests, and his firm has held an average
of about forty-five thousand sheep from that date to the present.
Captain Lytle is also one of the largest landed proprietors in the
country, being joint proprietor in four large ranches in Texas. The
one where he makes his home is at Lytle, Medina County, and con-
tains 20,000 acres, all enclosed, improved, and stocked with blooded
cattle. A ranch in Frio County, 40,000 acres, is also fenced and
stocked with cattle. One in Maverick County, on the Rio Grande,
contains 50,000 acres of patented land, and 350,000 acres of leased
lands. The latter is principally devoted to sheep and wool growing,
although 16,000 head of cattle are kept there. Captain Lytle also
owns with Mr. Schriner a ranch in Mason County, Texas, of 40,000
acres of patented land, all under fence and stocked with cattle. He is
one of the most approachable of men, and a general favorite. He
resides at Lytle, Texas, and is a widower with two children.
VI. MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
WHO has not heard of the cornfields of Kansas and the wheat-
fields of Dakota ? Not that all the mammoth fields of corn
and wheat are foimd in these localities ; for the New West, clear to
the Pacific coast, challenges the world to survey its empire of golden
grain. Contrary to the expectations of a quarter of a century ago,
the States and Territories along the Missouri, and beyond, yield mar-
vellous harvests. Daniel Webster said that wheat could never be
produced in paying quantities in California. For years, the reports
of remarkable harvests in that distant portion of our country were
not believed in the East. Thirty and sixty bushels of wheat, and
seventy-five of corn, to the acre, was simply a "Western lie." East-
ern farmers, accustomed to raise a few acres of grain, — five, ten,
perhaps twenty acres, — contemptuously sneered at the newspaper
report of ten thousand acres of corn and wheat on a single farm.
''The spring is too short for so much planting and sowing."
"Couldn't gather half of it in the autumn months." "Couldn't sell
so much for ten cents a bushel." " Speculators get up these stories."
"Tell it to the marines." The reports were too big for belief. Sto-
ries of half the size, though expressing only half the truth, might
have been accepted. The delighted Irishman, who asked his em-
ployer to write a letter for him to his old father in Ireland, said : —
"Write him that I have meat to eat once a day."
"Why, Pat; you have meat three times a day," replied his em-
ployer, "and why write that you have it but once ?"
" Faith, sir, it is too much for them to believe. If I say that I
have meat once a day, they may believe ; but if I say three times a
day, they will say it's Pat's fabrication."
So the letter went telling the old father that his son in " Amer-
iky " had meat once a day ; and it was true as far as it went. It was
so much nearer the state of things in Pat's native land that it chal-
lenged belief.
So it was with the marvels of agriculture in the New West a
generation ago. They presented so great a contrast with the agri-
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
629
culture of the East that credulity could not span the chasm. If the
reports had been half the size they might have been believed. As it
was, caricature and burlesque modified even the facts that were gen-
erally accepted, after the manner of the following : —
"Yes, sir," resumed the Dakota man, as the crowd of agricultur-
ists drew back from the bar and seated themselves around a little
table, ''yes, sir, we do things on rather a sizable scale. I've seen a
man on one of our big farms start out in the spring and plough a
straight furrow until fall, then he turned around and harvested back."
SULKEY PLOUGH.
'* Carry his grub
with him } " asked
1 Brooklyn farmer who
raised cabbage on the out-
skirts.
" No, sir. They follow
him up with a steam hotel
and have relays of men to change ploughs for him. We have some
big farms up there, gentlemen. A friend of mine owned a farm on
which he had to give a mortgage, and I pledge you my word the
mortgage was due on one end before they could get it on record at
the other. You see it was laid off in counties."
There was a murmur of astonishment, and the Dakota man con-
tinued : —
"I got a letter from a man who lives in my orchard just before I
630
MARVEtS OF THE NEW WEST.
left home, and it had been three weeks getting to the dwelUng-house,
although it had travelled day and night."
*' Distances are pretty wide up there, ain't they ? " inquired a New
Utrecht agriculturist.
"Reasonably, reasonably," replied the Dakota man. "And the
worst of it is, it breaks up families so. Two years ago I saw a whole
family prostrated with grief, — women yelling, children howling, and
dogs barking. One of my men had his camp truck packed on seven
four-mule teams, and he was around bidding everybody good by."
" Where was he going .^ " asked a Gravesend man.
" He was going half-way across the farm to feed the pigs," replied
the Dakota man.
" Did he ever get back to his family "^ "
" It isn't time for him yet,"
returned the Dakota gentleman.
" Up there we send young mar-
ried couples to milk the cows,
and their children bring home
the milk."
But time has not only vindi-
cated the reports, but proved also
that the half was never told. The
wildest dream has become real-
ity. The biggest story is not too
large for belief. The bigger the
better. The pendulum has swung
to the other extre'me. Nothing is
too large for belief. Twenty and even thirty thousand acre farms, and
a hundred bushels to the acre, is not an extravagant story now. Corn
eighteen feet high, with ears long and heavy enough for a policeman's
club, is not questioned now even by the uninitiated. Harvests like
an army with banners, waving their golden plumes above the house
which the farmer occupies, require no stretch of the imagination to
realize.
We have seen Kansas corn several feet higher than the dwelling
which the owner occupied. The stocks were marvellously stout as
compared with Eastern corn, and seemed to defy ordinary methods
of harvesting. An axe appeared as necessary to lay that field of
corn fiat as in gathering a crop of hoop-poles. Indeed, we should be
as hopefully inclined to feed cattle with moderate-sized hoop-poles
as with the stock of that corn.
CORN IN THE KAW VALLEY, KANSAS.
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE. 63 1
The newspapers teem with items now that would have been
treated as wholly unreliable thirty years ago. Here is a sample : —
*' A stalk of corn twenty feet high, and bearing thirteen well-
developed ears, is reported to have been grown at Encinitas, Cal.,
this season."
" A Nevada pear tree, with a trunk only one inch in diameter,
bears forty pounds of fruit."
" Remi Nadeau, of Los Angeles Co., the largest vine planter in
California, has set out about 100,000 vines this season, and is waiting
for more rain to increase the number. He and his sons have now
between three and four million vines, and are the largest grape
growers in the world."
"The HealdsbjLrg (Cal.) Enterprise reports that last March Mr.
H. O. Ludolff's hired man cut off a cutting from a grape-vine and
stuck it in the ground for mere sport. About a month ago he called
the attention of Mr. Ludolff to it, and he was surprised to see that it
had grown seven feet high and bore grapes. The bunches were
of immense size, and every bit as good as the original stock."
"An Oregon man lives in a room which he hollowed out in the
stump of a big tree. It has doors and windows, and answers the
purpose of a house."
" In California alfalfa is cut four and five times in the season,
and averages from two and a half to two tons at each cutting, or
from eight to ten tons per acre for the season."
" In Placer Co., Cal., is an orange cling peach tree grown from a
dormant bud, one year's growth, with stem an inch and a half in
diameter, and standing thirteen feet high. Also, a late October
peach grown in the same manner from bud this season, standing
twelve feet high.
" Messrs. Mitchell and McGindley exhibit a turnip which weighs
twenty-one pounds, and measures two feet and three inches in
circumference."
" The largest squash ever raised in western Colorado was produced
the past season on North Fork, in Delta Co. Its weight was 168
pounds."
" Mr. P., a neighbor about a mile and a half from the ranch, had
planted, in soil turned that year for the first time, part of one ear of
pop-corn from which he raised a crop that filled two barrels. A
single kernel fell by accident into a potato hill about sixty feet
distant from where the rest was planted, and produced a stock from
wiiich were picked seventeen ears of corn, on which, by actual count,
632
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
MILLET — SIX WEEKS' GROWTH
there were found six
thousand five kimdred
and cigJitccji kernels.''
A Colorado farmer
writes : '* I raised three
wagon loads of squash-
es on one-twelfth of an
acre.
" From my own gar-
den I raised 2,240 bush-
els of beets per acre.
Also, 80 bushels of
beans per acre.
''From 1,000 to
1,200 bushels of pars-
nips per acre may be
raised. I have them
two and a half feet
long."
'' California sent to
the grand exposition at
New Orleans, in 1885,
a squash three feet
long and two feet in
diameter, weighing 165
pounds ; early rose po-
tatoes nine inches long
and four in short diam-
eter, weighing from
two to three pounds
each; a watermelon
three feet long and two
feet in diameter ; beets
weighing forty pounds
apiece, cabbages sixty
pounds each, and
peaches so large in size
that four average ones
weighed three pounds."
''The Denver expo-
sition shows a cabbage
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE. 633
weighing eighty pounds, a pumpkin two hundred and twenty pounds,
parsnips three feet long weighing twenty pounds, a beet sixty pounds,
and onions weighing from six to eight pounds apiece."
" Kansas boasts of corn eighteen feet high, and oats and millet
ten feet."
The foregoing remarkable facts are illustrations of what we read
in public journals, almost daily, concerning the agriculture of the
New West. We say facts, for facts they are, and not falsehoods.
They have begotten "great expectations." From believing little of
the reports a quarter of a century ago, people have come to believe
them all, and ask for more marvels still. It is recorded in the Agri-
cultural Bureau at Washington that the largest yield of wheat ever
known in the whole world was grown in Salinas Valley, Monterey
County, California, in 1852. The yield was one hundred and two
bushels to the acre. Who can believe this fact, can believe all the
possibilities of western agriculture.
Turn now to the methods of agriculture in the New West, and
behold how the boundless prairies are converted into gardens by en-
terprise and tact.
In 1880 the United States stood at the head of nations in agricul-
tural and pastoral products, their value being $3,020,000,000. With-
out the New West this creditable position would not have been
attained. Russia stands next in the list, the value of her agricultural
products being $2,545,000,000. Then Germany, with $2,280,000,000.
Next France, with $2,220,000,000. Next Austria, with $322,000,000.
Great Britain is the sixth in the list, from her comparatively small
area producing $1,280,000,000 in value.
One-fourth of all the wealth of the United States is employed in
the cultivation of the soil. There are more than 4,000,000 farms, a
majority of them being run by their owners. About 3,000,000,000
bushels of grain are annually produced, the New West growing
the larger part. The invention and multiplication of labor-saving
machines has made this production possible. In 1830 the value
ot machinery used in agriculture was $150,000,000; it is now
3500,000,000.
It is estimated that there are 785,000 square miles of arable lands
west of the Mississippi, 645,000 of grazing lands, 260,000 of timber
lands, and 425,000 that are useless. There are nearly twice as many
acres of arable land west of the Mississippi as there are east of
it. The proportion is estimated thus: 1,690,000 west, and 800,000
east.
634
MARVELS OF THE AEW WEST.
Mr. Carnegie ^ strikingly puts the facts in the case as follows :
**The farms of America comprise 837,628 square miles, an area
nearly equal to one-fourth of Europe, and larger than the four great-
est European countries put together (Russia excepted), namely,
'«r'*t^,«i5f^,
France, Germany, Austria and Hungary, and Spain. The capital
invested in agriculture would suffice to buy up the whole of Italy,
with its rich olive-groves and vineyards, its old historic cities, cathe-
drals and palaces, its kings and aristocracy, its pope and cardinals,
1 Triumphant Democracy, p. 199. .
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
635
and every other feudal appurtenance. Or, if the American farmers
were to sell out, they could buy the entire peninsula of Spain, with
all its traditions of mediaeval grandeur, and the flat lands which the
Hollanders at vast cost have wrested from the sea, and the quaint
old towns they have built there. If he chose to put by his savings
for three years, the Yankee farmer could purchase the fee-simple of
pretty Switzerland as a summer resort, and not touch his capital at
all; for each year's earnings exceed ^550,000,000. The cereal crop
of 1880 was more than 2,500,000,000 bushels. If placed in one mass,
this would make a pile of 3,500,000,000 cubic feet. Built into a solid
mass as high as the dome of St. Paul's (365 feet), and as wide as the
cathedral across the transepts (285 feet), it would extend, a solid mass
of grain, down Fleet Street and the length of the Strand and Pica-
dilly, thence on through Knightsbridge, Hammersmith, and South
Kensington, to a distance of over six miles. Or it would make a
pyramid three times as great as that of Cheops. If loaded on carts,
it would require all the horses in Europe and 1,000,000 more
(33,500,000) to remove it, though each horse drew a load of two tons.
Were the entire crop of cereals loaded on a continuous train of cars,
the train would reach one and a half times around the globe. Its
value is half as great as all the gold mined in California in the thirty-
five years since gold was found there. The corn and cotton-fields of
America form kingdoms in themselves, surpassing in size some of
those of Europe."
Distribution of Land Areas. {^Deduced from the Census of 1880.')
STATES AND TERRI-
TORIES OF THE
NEW WEST.
LAND IN FARMS.
LAND NOT IN
FARMS.
TOTAL
LAND AREA.
IMPROVED.
UNIMPROVED.
TOTAL.
Kansas
Nebraska . . .
Oregon ....
Washington . .
Colorado . . .
Utah
Wyoming . . .
Montana . . .
Idaho
Nevada ....
Arizona ....
Dakota ....
New Mexico . .
California . . .
107,39,566
5,504,702
2,198,645
484,346
616,169
416,105
83,122
262,611
197,407
344,423
56,071
1,150,413
237,392
10,669,698
10,677,902
4,440,124
2,016,067
925,075
549,204
239,419
41,311
143,072
130,391
186,439
79,502
2,650,243
393,739
5,924,044
21,417.468
9,944,826
4,214,712
1,409,421
1,165,373
655,524
124,433
405,683
327,798
530,862
135,573
3,800,656
631,131
16,593,742
30,870,532
38,813,574
56,303,688
41,393,779
65,167,427
51,946,076
62,323,567
92,592,717
53,617,802
69,702,738
72,133,227
90,727,344
77,743,269
83,233,458
52,288,000
48,758,400
60,518,400
42,803,200
66,332,800
52,601,600
62,448,000
92,998,400
53,945,600
70,233,600
72,268,800
94,528,000
78,374,400
99,827,200
Totals ' 32,960,670
28,396,532
61,357,202
886,569,198
947,926,400
636
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
637
The illustration informs the reader at once how a farm of twenty
or thirty thousand acres is ploughed. It is divided into sections, with
superintendent and army of employees for each section, who go to
work with military precision and order. The cut opposite represents
two sections of workers, one of them in the distance, each moving
forward like a column of cavalry, turning over a hundred acres of soil
in an incredibly brief period of time. The superintendent is accom-
panied by aids, furnished with all the necessary tools and materials
for making repairs speedily, so as to reduce delays to the least possi-
ble minimum. Under this arrangement the earth is easily conquered
by this mighty army of ploughers, who move forward to the music
STEAM GANG PLOUGH.
of rattling machines and the tramp of horses. It is an inspiring
spectacle, — the almost boundless prairie farm and the cohorts of
hopeful tillers marching over it in triumph.
Steam also reinforces the battalions of workers on many bonanza
farms, largely multiplying the amount of labor performed.
The process of harrowing an extensive wheat-field is like that of
ploughing, the plough being exchanged for the harrow. The super-
intendent, on horseback, leads the harrowing cavalcade, as the general
does his army, and between the tramp of steeds and tear of harrows,
the soil is pretty thoroughly pulverized. Workmen say there is pecu-
liar fascination in this method of subduing Western land on a large
scale. Men forget the burden of toil in the excitement of the hour.
638
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
" Many hands make light work " is an old proverb ; but it is full as
true that many hands make merry work. Drudgery becomes no
part of the labor. It is not really " hard work," nor " wearing work."'
There is so much sociability as well as novelty in the methods that
no one is disposed to complain of "hard" work. Nor do they tire of
the business as Eastern farmers, working early and late to support
their families, often tire. They behold the reward of labor in the
HARROWING ON A BONANZA FARM.
rich, loamy furrows, and are satisfied. It is three and four months
before harvest, yet they see the thousands of acres of waving grain,
the grandest spectacle upon which their eyes ever feasted. Says one
who speaks from personal observation : —
*' After all, the most magnificent sight presented to the traveller
is the almost boundless expanse of tall, waving wheat in North Dakota,
Look out for eight, ten, or twenty miles, as far as the average human
sight can pierce the distance, and view the luxuriant, stalwart gram
swaying in the breeze and glittering in the golden sunlight like the
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
639
coruscations of a soaring imagination, and if anything is lacking to
complete the sublimity of the picture, compute the pile of golden
eagles, or greenbacks, the alchemy of harvest will transmute into the
pockets of the lucky owners of these Western bonanzas."
The author of "California, the Cornucopia of the World," has com-
municated so much information upon seeding wheat in that State, in
a brief article, that we copy it entire. The difference between the
seasons in California and some other portions of the New West is set
forth by the writer : —
SEEDING ON A BONANZA FARM.
"We have heretofore alluded to the fact that the seasons in Cali-
fornia are so favorable to putting in grain that one man can put in
much more there than in countries where the seasons are less favora-
ble. By good management every farmer has a good portion of his
land intended for wheat summer-fallowed. This he sows before the
rain begins, say in September. The seed comes up with the first
rain, and makes a large growth in the warm, pleasant, fall weather,
which is as fine growing weather as any April or May weather.
" Then, when enough rain has fallen to moisten the soil sufficiently
640 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
to plough stubble corn or new land, the teams are set to work putting
in these kinds of lands to wheat. This is called winter-ploughed
wheat. The ground being smooth, and soil entirely free of stone
and deep and mellow, gang ploughs are used. Some use two and
some three gangs, and where the fields are large and the soil in good
condition and level, as high as eleven ploughs to the gang are used.
Four horses are used on a two-gang plough, and six on a three-gang,
and so increasing the number of horses to the number of ploughs in
the gang, using twelve horses on eleven-gang ploughs.
"The ploughs in the gangs, when so many are used, are generally
smaller ploughs, say cutting a furrow eight and ten inches. Con-
nected with the plough or gang of ploughs is a seed sower that sows
the seed in front of the plough, and a harrow behind and attached to
the plough, so that as the machine moves along the whole operation
of ploughing, seeding, and harrowing is performed and completed.
No matter how many ploughs in the gang or how many horses, one
man attends to and manages the whole thing. It is always calcu-
lated that the number of acres thus ploughed and sown in a day
should be equal to the number of horses employed. Thus, with six
horses six acres are sown, with eight horses eight acres, and with
twelve horses twelve acres are put in in a day. Th.is it will be seen
that one man with twelve horses can, in one month of twenty-six
working days, put in 312 acres. We have heretofore stated that our
seed time for wheat is from September to April, eight months. At
312 acres to the month, one man can thus put in 2,496 acres. Now,
in this connection it must be remembered that all this labor, this
important and money-making labor, is performed in the rainy season
of California. It must also be remembered that the rainy season in
California, as we have already explained, is not a season of contin-
uous rains, as many have supposed. Sometimes it rains most of the
time for two or three days, but more generally the farmer can work
in the field the whole season through and not lose more than four or
five days in the whole time."
"■ Necessity is the mother of invention ; " and so the wheat-raisers
found a way of harvesting their enormous crops. Our forefathers
used the sickle, a very slow and unsatisfactory method of gathering
grain. Less than a hundred years ago the "cradle " for cutting grain
was invented by a Scotchman, and this created a revolution in har-
vesting. It facilitated the autumn work of the farmer to such a
degree that he never dreamed there could be any improvement upon
that method. But even the "cradle" could not avail much on the
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
641
642
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
vast wheat-fields of the New West. Think of Dalrymple cradHng
thirty thousand acres of grain ! One hundred men could cradle but
three hundred acres per day at the most ; and one hundred days,
at this rate, would be required for harvesting. This would " cost
more than it comes to." Western farmers could not afford the
expense. It was absolutely necessary that some other method of
harvesting grain should be discovered, and it was, A machine for
cutting, binding, and placing the bundles in an upright position
met the needs of the hour. The problem of harvesting the largest
fields of grain was solved by this invention.
A romantic Western story was told about this machine last
season. A young lady was intently watching its operation, when, in
''te|ff$^^^^^^
STEAM HEADER.
her eagerness to comprehend the process, she ventured too near its
enfolding arms, and was taken up by them, as the grain was taken
up, bound, and deposited on her feet. Being about the size of a
bundle of grain, she passed through the process unhurt, and found
herself standing upon her feet with no change except an additional
neat little band about her waist.
The writer, who has spoken to us of California from personal
observation, speaks as follows of harvesting wheat and the use of the
header : —
'' It must be remembered that there is no rain from the first or
middle of May to the first or middle of October ; the seasons vary a
little as to the close of the rainy season and the beginning of the dry.
As a rule, the wheat in California is cut with a header. On some of
the small farms the farmers unite together and purchase a header
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE. 643
and alternate in the use of it. In other cases, farmers hire their
grain cut by the acre by men who own headers, and make it a busi-
ness to go from farm to farm during the harvest time. The general
practice now is to have the grain cut and threshed at the same time,
and by a man who owns and mans and works both a header and
steam thresher. These cutting and threshing rigs are complete.
They find all the teams and all the help, and move a kitchen and
kitchen fixtures all on wheels along with them. They take contracts
to cut and thresh wheat or other grain at so much an acre, bushel, or
cental, doing all the work and finding everything, leaving the farmer
nothing to do but receive and take care of his sacked wheat, and his
wife no more care or trouble during harvesting and threshing time
than at any other season of the year. The price per acre varies in
accordance with the demand for labor and the character of the grain,
but runs from seventy-five cents to a dollar and a quarter.
'' The wheat that is standing in the field in the morning is found
in sacks, and frequently at the shipping depot, ready to be put on the
steamer or cars for market before night. We have known it to be
carried to mill and returned to the farm in the form of flour, and
cooked, so that the hands who cut it in the morning ate it at
supper in the form of warm biscuit. We have in the San Joaquin
valley, working successfully, combined headers and threshers. These
machines move before the horses, — from twenty to twenty-four
horses or mules to each machine, — cut and thresh and sack the
grain, and leave the sacks in piles. Four men work them, and cut
and thresh from twenty-five to forty acres a day, depending on the
favorableness of the ground and the grain. If the farmer is busy
when his wheat is threshed, and cannot well carry his wheat to the
barn or storehouse or depot, all he has to do is to pile his sacks up
in the field, cover them with straw, and let them lay there two or
three months, or till he can conveniently move them. The clear blue
sky is a guaranty against any damage from the weather, and the no-
fence law is a guaranty that no stock shall interfere with it. The
advantage secured to the farmer in sowing and harvesting his wheat,
is, of course, secured to him in sowing and harvesting all other kinds
of grain.
"■ But one word now in reference to spring and winter wheat. We
have no such distinction in California. It makes no difference where
our seed comes from, or whether it bears the name of winter or
spring wheat. Grown in California it simply becomes California
wheat, and in Liverpool, or any other market in Europe, it is quoted
644
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
white wheat, and bears the highest quotations. We change our seed
from time to time from one locaUty to another, or import seed from
other States, to gain the advantages of such changes, but our crops
bear in all cases the ear mark of the California climate. We have
probably said enough to convince the reader that California can raise
wheat cheaper than any other country, and to explain why the ratio
of production in California is ten bushels for each man, woman, and
child engaged in agricultural pursuits to one bushel for each man,
woman, and child engaged in the same pursuits in Illinois, or any of
the other States east of the Rocky Mountains. But we have one
other advantage to speak of, and then we will leave this particular
branch of the subject. It is found by actual statistics that the aver-
1- rrii. - :|i'l
THE STEAM THRESHER
age yield per acre in California is two-fifths more than the average
yield per acre on the eastern side of the continent."
This cut shows the steam thresher of which our California inform-
ant speaks. What he says about the rapidity with which the work is
done — wheat cut in the morning appearing in hot l^iscuit at night —
may seem as fabulous to the reader as any of the reports burlesqued
thirty years ago. But the writer of the foregoing is perfectly relia-
ble, and speaks officially, too.
Eastern farmers cannot understand how it is that North Dakota,
with its cold, piercing winters and terrible blizzards, and summers
swept by cyclones, can produce more wheat per acre than even Cali-
fornia. A scientist explains the matter as follows : '' The qualities
of climate which bear on wheat-raising in North Dakota, and con-
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
645
tribute more regularly, uniformly, and efficiently to the growth of the
crop than any found in more southerly climes, are, more daily sun-
shine, — the days, by reason of the higher altitude, being longer, —
cool nights which always favor the cereal crops, deep frosts which
gradually melt and supply moisture to the growing plant, less intense
heat during the maturing months, fewer injurious caprices of weather
at the critical period of growth, and natural climatic conditions which
render possible the production of hard spring wheat, — a cheap crop,
'""■-'' ----'^'^^
^ri:^0mm^^^'
Mccormick's new reaper.
by reason of its being a quick crop of only about one hundred days
from seeding to maturity."
The prevailing westerly winds, called '* Chinook," extend to the
inland plains of the northern Pacific country, and sensibly modify the
climate.
In New England the farmer waits for the frost to quit the earth
before he undertakes to seed it. But in Dakota, and all the region
which the Northern Pacific Railway has opened for settlement, the
farmer plants and sows as soon as the warm sun of March has
646 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
melted three or four inches of the six feet of frost in the soil. The
frost continues to melt after the earth is seeded, affording moisture
and heat from beneath, to the great advantage of all cereals. Like
the underground irrigation of California, this process of dissolving the
frost slowly turns out to be one of the finest arrangements of nature
for growing wheat rapidly and plentifully.
Eastern people who feel the cold chills creeping over them when-
ever they think of Oregon and Washington Territory, to say nothing
of Montana and Idaho, will be both surprised and instructed by read-
ing the following : —
" West of the Cascade Range the winters are rainy, rather than
cold. The average temperature for spring is 52°; for summer, ^'j" \
for autumn, 53°; and for winter, 38°; showing a mean deviation of
only 29° during the year. The winter, or rainy season, begins about
the middle of October, often later, and ends about the first of May.
The rains are more copious in December, January, and March.
" Since the settlement of the country by white men, beginning
with Lewis and Clark's expedition, in the early part of the century,
no storm has done material damage in the region west of the Rocky
Mountains, north of California.
*' In Western Oregon and Washington Territory, whenever the
thermometer falls a few degrees below the freezing point, the weather
is usually bright and pleasant, with heavy white frost at night. The
frosts that occur in spring, which in other lands would be severe
enough to injure fruit and other crops, are commonly followed by
heavy fogs from the ocean. The humidity of these fogs dissolves
the frost before the sun can strike the vegetation, so that no harm is
done by it. This moist atmosphere keeps the grass perennially
green on the coast, and it is not unusual for flowers to bloom in the
open air the winter through.
*' Ice is seldom sufficiently thick to be cut for use, and skating is
a rare pastime. The spring opens so early that the farmer sows his
seed, and the fruit trees and wild flowers are in bloom, when in lati-
tude from four to six degrees further south, on the Atlantic coast,
the rigor of winter is still unrelaxed.
'* East of the Cascade Mountains, it must be remembered, the
climate and natural features of the country are very different from
those of the great basin lying west of them, so that the popular
divisions. Eastern and Western Oregon and Washington Territory,
are warranted.
" In the eastern section the thermometer is much higher in sum-
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE. 647
mer and lower in winter than in the western section. The rain-fall
is only half as heavy. From June to September there is no rain, the
weather being perfect for harvesting. The heat is great, but not
nearly so oppressive as a much lower grade would be in the Eastern
States, and the nights are invariably cool.
"The winters are short, but occasionally severe. Snow seldom
falls before Christmas, and sometimes lies from four to six weeks,
but usually disappears in a few days. The so-called ' Chinook,' a
warm wind, is of great benefit to the country ; it blows periodically,
and melts deep snows in the course of a few hours. This warm
atmosphere is caused by the passage of the wind across the Japan
current.
'' In Eastern Oregon and Washington spring begins in February,
with warm, pleasant weather, and lasts until the middle of May. At
this season rain falls in sufficient quantity to give life to vegetation
and ensure good crops. The average temperature is 52°.
''Autumn weather in October and November is generally delight-
ful. There is often frost by night, but the days are usually warm
and bright. The season is marked by showers, and also by thunder-
storms in some localities. The mercury ranges between 55° and 70°.
''The rain-fall of the year does not average more than twenty
inches. South of the Snake River it is not more than fifteen inches,
increasing gradually to the northward.
" Paradoxical as it may seem, if the rain were greatly in excess of
this low average, damage would certainly ensue ; and it is equally
sure, if successful farming depended upon the limited rain-fall, there
would be poor harvests. The clouds supply only in part the moisture
which is needed. The warm-air currents, surcharged with vapor,
which sweep inland from the ocean up the channel of the Columbia
River, prevent drought. The effect of these atmospheric currents in
tempering the climate has already been described. Their influence
upon the vegetation is no less vital. The moisture with which they
are laden is held in suspension during the day, diffused over the face
of the country. At night it is condensed by the cooler temperature,
and precipitated in the form of a fine mist on every exposed particle
of surface which earth and plant present. The effect is that of a
copious shower. This is apparent on taking a morning walk through
the grass, which can only be done at the cost of wet feet. In this
region it is no unusual phenomenon for a smart shower to fall when
clouds are invisible and the sun is shining. This occurrence is ex-
plained also upon the theory that the vapor in the atmosphere comes
648
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
in contact with an upper current of cold air, which causes rapid con-
densation and consequent rain. A summer drought, therefore, which
in most cHmates is a calamity, is here a benefit. The soil needs no
more rains after those of the spring are over, and the farmer may de-
pend upon cloudless skies at harvest time. For example, the wheat
crop of Eastern Washington in 1883 was 6,500,000 bushels, and no
rain fell between May and September.
'' The ordinary harvest time for wheat is from June 24 to Sept.
10; for oats, from July 13-20; for barley, from June 20 to July
I ; for rye, from July i-io; for corn, from Aug. 20 to Sept. 10.
** Bferns and sheds for keeping the grain, which are indispensable
in other countries, are scarcely needed east of the Cascade Moun-
BROADCAST SOWER.
tains. The grain is threshed in the fields by machinery, and thence
sent in sacks directly to warehouses for storage or exportation."
And this is that portion of our land which was marked, on the
maps of our boyhood, lands unfit for cultivation. Then, before
actual experiment had disproved the conclusion, the existence of
** bunch grass" was proof of sterility; but now it is proof of fer-
tility.
We have heard a great deal about the ''bad lands" of Dakota;
but these lands constitute but a small fraction of the Territory, —
only ninety-five thousand acres out of ninety-four million five hundred
twenty-eight thousand. And these lands are not so ''bad" after all ;
for these lands are extensively used for grazing, and Mr. G. V. Smalley
of St. Paul, who speaks after careful examination, says, "Cattle come
out of the bad lands in the spring as fat as though they had been
stall-fed all winter." Surely there is much poorer land than that in
New England. The United States Surveyor-General says, "The
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
649
proportion of waste land in Dakota, owing to the absence of swamps,
mountain-ranges, overflowed and sandy tracts, is less than in any
other State or Territory in the Union."
The opinion prevails that there is much worthless land in Utah.
It is true to a certain extent, but the quantity of worthless land in
that Territory is much less than people suppose. The Surveyor-Gen-
eral of the Territory says : "Notwithstanding the opinion of many
who deem our lands 'arid, desert, and worthless,' these same lands,
under proper tillage, produce forty to fifty bushels of wheat, seventy
to eighty bushels of oats and barley, from two hundred to four hun-
dred bushels of potatoes to the acre, and fruits and vegetables equal
to any other State or Territory in quantity or quality."
M^P SHOWING GEOGRAPHICAL CENTRE OF THE UNITED STATES.
Geographically, Kansas is the *' hub " of the American Republic.
An able journalist says : —
" Kansas lies between the thirty-seventh and fortieth parallels of
latitude, the district which, the world round, controls the destinies
of the globe, and the time will come when this State will be the
powerful centre of the most powerful nation on earth. In 1790
the centre of population in the United States was in Maryland, on
the thirty-ninth parallel, and at every census it has moved westward
very nearly along that line, until now it is just west of Cincinnati
and on its way to Kansas. The thirty-ninth parallel, which has been
the thread upon which, as on the necklace of the world, have been
650 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Strung the jewels of wealth, culture, plenty, luxury, and refinement,
passes directly through the State of Kansas, through the fertile
Arkansas Valley."
The Commissioner of Immigration furnishes a map to prove be-
yond controversy that Kansas is the central State of the Union. He
says : —
''The geographical centre of the United States is located near
Fort Riley, not far from the centre of Kansas, and near the place
where Coronac}ft first crossed the Kansas River. Take a map of the
United States and fold it both ways, — fold the ends together and
crease it through the middle ; then place the top and bottom edges
together, and crease the map again. It will be found that the creases
will cross in Kansas, as is shown by the lines drawn at right angles
to each other through the middle of the map on the preceding page.
With the point where these lines cross as a common centre, describe
circles including parts, or all of the United States, and the central
location of the State will at once be apparent. The same circle
which passes through Boston passes through San Francisco."
Reference to the centre of population in 1790, by the writer just
quoted, adds interest to the following table : —
" It is claimed that the centre of population has moved westward
at the rate of fifty miles for every ten years, since 1790, which is five
miles a year.
In 1790 the centre of population was 22 miles east of Baltimore.
1800 " " " 17 miles west of Baltimore.
1810 " " " 40 miles northwest of Washington.
1820 " " " 16 miles north of Woodstock, Va.
1830 " " " -19 niiles west by southwest of Mooland, W. Va.
1840 " " " 16 miles west of Clarksburg, W. Va.
1850 *' " " ... 23 miles southeast of Parkersburg, W^. Va.
i860 '•' " " 20 miles south of Chillicothe, O.
1870 " " " .... 48 miles east by north of Cincinnati, O.
1880 " " " 8 miles west by south of Cincinnati, O,
It is a significant fact that corn is king in the pivotal State of the
Union, though only eight million of its fifty-two million acres are
under cultivation. If the State were as thickly populated as Eng-
land, it would contain thirty-five million people, — five times as large
a population as would be necessary to bring every acre of its arable
land into a high state of cultivation. If a million and a quarter of
inhabitants cultivate eight million acres, six million of people will
bring the whole area under the plough and harrow.
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
651
Corn became king in Kansas in 1883. In* i860 the farmers of
that State raised but six million bushels of corn ; in 1883 they raised
one hundred seventy-two million bushels, and thereby stepped to the
front. Moreover, this vast yield of corn was mostly sound. The
" Report of the United States Department of Agriculture for March,
1884" says that "Kansas, in 1883, raised sixty-two million more
bushels of 'merchantable corn' than did any other State of the
Union." Said report furnishes the following very instructive
tables : — ■-
Sound Corn.
Bushels. I
Oregon 106,026 Indiana
Dakota 1,867,721 Texas , ,
Michigan 3,854,214 Kentucky
Wisconsin 4,008,481 | Nebraska,
New York 6,129,445 \ Illinois
Mississippi 23,236,532 Missouri
Ohio 27,952,800 Kansas
Iowa 44,103,540
Bushels.
46,853,800
57>463, 1 33
64,125,476
67,856,863
73,363,140
96,993,000
158,976,828
That the reader may gather an idea of the exact force of these
figures, the per cent of corn raised in the various States which was
actually merchantable is given : —
Oregon 9>3
Wisconsin 17
Michigan 18
Iowa 26
New York 35
Illinois 36
Dakota 38
Ohio 38
Indiana 49
Missouri 60
Nebraska 67
Kentucky 82
Texas 91
Mississippi 92
Kansas 92
The United States Department of Agriculture shows, also, the
number of bushels per acre raised in the best corn-growing States in
1883, and Kansas leads the van : —
Bushels per Acre.
South Carolina 8.0
Georgia 8.7
Mississippi 13. 5
Arkansas • 17
Texas 17,
Dakota 18,
Tennessee 20,
Minnesota 20
Wisconsin 21
New York
Oregon
Kentucky
Colorado
Illinois .
Indiana
Missouri
Kansas
23.0
23-5
24.0
25.0
25.0
27.0
27-5
36.7
652
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
One who has examined the reports of the United States Depart-
ment of Agriculture for the aggregate production of wheat in Kansas,
says : —
** Kansas produced more corn to the acre than did any other State
or Territory. Kansas produced sixty-two milHon more bushels of mer-
chantable corn than did any other State or Territory. Kansas pro-
duced, in 1883, more corn than did any other State excepting Illinois,
and at the present rate of increase will outrank Illinois in 1884.
When one remembers these four facts, he cannot but acknowledge that
Kansas is the first corn State in the Union. This, of itself, is suffi-
cient to crown Kansas chief of the farming States, if no other crops
were thought of.
TWO-ROWED CORN-PLANTER.
"■ A careful examination of the official statistics as to wheat will
prove that no State outranks Kansas in the profitable production of
this cereal. In i860 the aggregate yield for the whole State was
194,173 bushels. In 1870 it had increased to but 2,391,198 bush-
els. In 1882 the average yield per acre was 23.17 bushels, the
total yield 35,734,846 bushels. In 1883 the yield fell to 26,851,100
bushels, Dakota producing 16,128,000, and Oregon 13,122,400 bush-
els. In 1883 only one State, Colorado, produced more wheat to the
acre and got more money from each acre of wheat than did Kansas,
and the limited area which Colorado can devote to wheat-raising
takes her out of the list of rivals. For the product of each acre in
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
653
wheat Kansas farmers got sixty-five cents more than did those of
California, $2.13 more than the dwellers in Dakota, and ^3.25 more
than the men of Minnesota. Herewith is given the number of
bushels per acre raised in 1883 in various States. Colorado, which
yielded twenty-one bushels to the acre, is omitted for reasons pre-
viously given.
Bushels of Wheat.
Kansas • • • 1 7 • 5
Dakota 16.0
Nebraska 15-5
California i3-0
Minnesota 130
New York
Ohio .
Illinois . .
Texas . .
10.3
10. o
10. o
8.5
Arkansas 6.
EMPIRE GRAIN-DRILL.
The number of bushels of wheat raised in Kansas in various years
from i860 to 1883 was as follows :
i860 194,173
1870 2,391,198
1872 3,062,941
1873 5.994,044
1874 9,881,383
1875 13,209,403
1876 14,620,225
1877 14,316,705
1878 32,3i5'358
1880 17,324,141
1881 20,479,579
1882 35,734,846
1883 26,851,100
654
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
The yield of oats in Kansas is scarcely less remarkable than that
of wheat The following comparative statement of the number of
bushels of o?ts per acre in 1883 is derived from official sources : —
Arkansas 14.4
Texas 22.8
Missouri 28.7
Colorado 29.3
Wisconsin 30.4
Minnesota 33.1
Iowa
34-1
Michigan 34.6
Illinois 36.1
Nebraska 40.0
Dakota 42.9
Kansas 44-6
In 1884 Kansas sowed fifteen per cent more acreage of oats than
in 1883. The State produced, also, 49,1 13,000 bushels of wheat, which
was 13,000,000 more bushels than any State raised in 1883. Other
statistics prove that farming in Kansas is diversified notwithstanding
the prominence of corn and wheat. The rye crop of the State was : —
No. Bushels. Value.
1877 2,525,054 ^806,092
1878 2,722,008 816,602
1883 5,084,391 1,666,909.70
Other Farm Products
Stands of bees in 1883 I9j752
Pounds of honey 325,000
Pounds of cheese 59i>770
Pounds of butter 23,947,016
Pounds of sugar made from sorghum 600,000
Gallons of syrup 4,684,023
Acres of sorghum in 1883 . . 102,042
Value of sorghum cane per acre . ^20.17
Total value of product of sorghum fields ^2,058,127.60
The per cent of returns on money invested in farming lands, offi-
cially stated, puts Kansas again at the head of the roll of honor. In
Pennsylvania it is 13^ per cent; Ohio, 13!; New Jersey, 15I-; Massa-
chusetts, 16J; New York, i6f ; Maryland, i/f ; Indiana, 183V; Mich-
igan, 18J; Illinois, 20^; Wisconsin, 20 J; Virginia, 21-J; Kentucky,
21^ ; Kansas, 22^.
The value of Kansas farms is a very significant item. It is the
value of only the 21,417,468 acres now in farms, and does not include
the more than 30,000,000 acres not in farms. These farms are valued
at only $10.98 per acre, while Massachusetts farms average $43.52 ;
Connecticut, $49.34; New York, $44.41 ; Pennsylvania, $49.30; Ohio,
$45.97 ; Michigan, $36.15 ; and Illinois farms $31.87 per acre. The
following is the comparative value of farms in 1883 : —
MARVELS OF AGE/CULTURE.
655
Dakota $22,401,048
Colorado 25,109,223
Oregon 56,908,575
Arkansas 74,249,655
Nebraska 105,932,541
Georgia 111,910,540
North Carolina $135,793,602
Texas 170,468,886
Kansas 235,178,936
True valuation of all property
in Kansas $402,864,163.22
We have quoted the value of the honey product of Kansas, which
is but a fair illustration of the value of this industry all through the
New West. It is a land of flowers, sweet-scented and beautiful.
The bee finds it a natural home, and gathers sweets from its vast
area of floral wealth. A tourist writes of the flowers of Kansas as
follows : —
" Can you picture to yourself ten acres of portulaca ? or whole
hillsides curtained with what seems a superb variety of wisteria, ex-
cept that it grows on a stalk instead of hanging from a vine ? Do
you know how it feels not to be able to step without crushing a
flower, so that the little prairie dogs, sitting contentedly with their
intimate friends the owls on the little heaps of earth thrown up
around their holes, have every appearance of having planted their
own front yards with the choicest floral varieties ? Think of driving
into a great field of sunflowers, the horses trampling down the tall
stalks, that spring up again behind the carriage, so that one outside
the field would never know that a carriage-load of people were any-
where in it ; or, riding through a * grove' of them, the blossoms tow-
ering out of reach as you sit on horseback, and a tall hedge of them
grown up as a barrier between you and your companion ! Not a daisy,
or a buttercup, or a clover, or a dandelion, will you see all summer ;
but new flowers too exquisite for belief ; the great white prickly pop-
pies, and the sensitive rose, with its leaves delicate as a maiden-hair
fern, and its blossom a countless mass of crimson stamens tipped
with gold, and faintly fragrant. Even familiar flowers are unfamiliar
in size, profusion, and color. What at home would be a daisy is here
the size of a small sunflower, with petals of delicate rose-pink, vary-
ing from a cone-shaped centre of rich maroon shot with gold."
The same writer describes another scene as follows : —
*' It was a river of flowers ; I do not know how else to describe it.
A deep hollow, like the dried channel of a river, perhaps nearly half a
mile long, completely filled, between bank and bank, with a mass of
most exquisite pink flowers. Not a green leaf nor a stalk could be
seen, and there was not a break in the broad surface of bloom ; though
the flower itself, when examined, proved to be the tiniest of things ;
656
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
something not unlike the Httle white sweet-clover that we find in
eastern garden-beds ; only of a most wonderful rose-color. The
curious part of it was that not a single one of the flowers could be
found anywhere in the meadow, even a foot beyond the river-bed ;
they were concentrated
r^'>« Uat\^\^\\*^\ \ mrmm there, and only there, and
lay like a broad pink rib-
bon on the prairie ; a bit of
landscape gardening which
I have never seen a land-
scape gardener able to sur-
pass.
*' If I were to chronicle
the flowers as they ap-
peared, I might date my
prayers, as Miss did
her diary, 'The day we
found the first sensitive
rose'; 'the day we drove
over to the Elk House to
see the prickly pear with
sixty blossoms on it ' ;
'the day we saw the sun-
flower twenty feet high ' ;
' the day that I, a member
of the Society for the Pro-
tection of Animals, which
ought to include flowers,
trampled down half an acre
of crimson portulaca,
because I couldn't find
room for my horse's feet
where there wasn't a blos-
som,' etc., etc. But I have
grown fond of large figures
since I have known the
West, and am tempted to
mass my flowers as nature does there, and give them all to you at
once. Ah! If my page could only glow with their color! There
were very few of the flowers we had known at the East ; many
were not even in the botanies."
SUNFLOWERS.
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
657
Raising broom corn is a valuable industry of Kansas. Last year
about thirty thousand acres were planted, which yielded twenty
million pounds, valued at ^700,000. The illustration shows the
method of baling and shipping the crop.
Tree-planting is another prosperous industry, not only in Kansas,
but in every State and Territory of the New West.
In 1 88 1 there was in Kansas the following number of acres in
planted forest : —
Walnut . . , 5^895
Maple 6,453
Honey Locust 1,215
Cottonwood • 39,108
Osage Orange 617
Catalpa 7^^
Other varieties Z'^,1^'h
Total 92,839
BROOM CORN.
Since that time the acreage of tree-planting has rapidly increased.
The governor of Kansas said, in his "Arbor Day" proclamation, that
"the State which the pioneers found almost treeless and a desert,
now bears upon its fertile bosom twenty million fruit trees and more
than two hundred thousand acres of forest trees, all planted by our
own people." A writer says : —
" These groves have attained a height of from fifteen to sixty feet,
the trees having a diameter of three to fifteen inches. The annual
growth is from one to two inches diameter, and a four or five year
658 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
old forest will thereafter furnish a good supply of fuel for the family.
In the homestead counties, where the Government has stimulated arti-
ficial forestry by the ' Timber Act,' giving any man, or head of family,
one hundred and sixty acres of land on the condition of his or her
planting forty acres of the same in timber and caring for it seven
years, beautiful groves of Cottonwood, ash, box-elder, maple, and
walnut dot the country in every direction, and lend a charm to the
prairie landscape quite beyond the power of description. These
charming groves will be as numerous and noteworthy, in the near
future of Kansas, as the orchards of Michigan and Western New
York. Columns of forest trees outline the farms and highways for
miles and miles, in many districts, and it is no unusual thing for a
farmer to plant ten thousand young trees in a single year. With the
pretty valley timber belts and artificial groves grown into statelines^,
ten years from to-day Kansas will be one grand continuous park, and
the most beautiful country under the sun. Beyond the question of
abundant and cheap fuel, building and fencing timber, and embellish-
ment of landscape, which are involved in extended tree-planting, these
groves will superinduce rainfall, temper the February and March
winds, and give increased equability to the climate."
The State of Nebraska originated ''Arbor Day"; thanks for the
public enterprise of its citizens. Minnesota was the first State to
copy Nebraska's example, and one million five hundred thousand
trees were planted in that State on its first ''Arbor Day." Now, the
States and Territories west of the Missouri River make tree-planting
an important industry.
Nebraska not only originated "Arbor Day," but enacted stringent
laws, also, for the protection of trees, and made very liberal provisions
to encourage tree-planting, as follows : —
"The Nebraska State constitution provides that 'the increased
value of lands by reason of live fences, fruit and forest trees grown
and cultivated thereon shall not be taken into consideration in the
assessment thereof.' A State law 'exempts from taxation for five
years $100 valuation for each acre of fruit trees planted, and ^50 for
each acre of forest trees ' ; also makes it obligatory that ' the corpo-
rate authorities of cities and villages in the State shall caus z shade
trees to be planted along the streets thereof.'
"Further: 'Any person who shall injure or destroy the shade
tree or trees of another, or permit his or her animals to do the same,
shall be liable to a fine of not less than ^5, nor more than ^50 for
each tree injured or destroyed.'
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE. 659
'' To encourage growing live fences the law permits planting ' pre-
cisely on the line of the road or highway, and for its protection to
occupy, for a term of seven years, six feet of the road or highway.' "
Other States and Territories of the New West soon followed the
good example of Nebraska.
From the Department of Agriculture at Washington we learn
that "from 1854 up to and including the year 1882, covering a period
of twenty-eight years, official statistics, with some reliable estimates
to cover dates not thus provided, it is found there has been planted
within the borders of what is now the State of Nebraska 244,356
acres of forest trees. This includes seedlings, seeds, and cuttings
planted in permanent forests, groves, and along highways and streets
in cities and villages. Spontaneous indigenous growth, since fires
have been kept from borders of streams and ravines, is estimated
equal to half the area planted."
"It is safe to say a majority of planting is made, originally, four
feet by four, with view to cutting out first one-half, as growth de-
mands space, and eventually another half of that remaining — three-
fourths in all. Some plant six by six, others eight by eight. Planted
four by four we have 2,622 trees to the acre, or a total of 640,701,-
432; eight by eight, 682 to the acre, or a total of 166,680,792. Aver-
age the totals, and there is shown 403,676,112. Add to the average
the spontaneous estimate, one-half, and the grand total is, planted
and grown in 28 years, 605,514,168 trees."
The National Government encourages tree-planting on its public
domain, by what is known as "The Timber Act." The original pas-
sage of the act occurred in 1873, and was amended in 1874. In 1878
it was amended again, and put into its present shape. During the
first ten years of its existence, 93,246 filings, covering 13,637,146
acres, were made — all but one million acres of the whole in the New
West ; a fact that proves the Far West to be largely in advance of the
East in this important industry.
Most of the railroad companies of the New West have engaged in
forestry, along their respective lines, and produced remarkable results.
The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company employed a
forester for several years ; and the same was true of other railroad
companies. The first object sought was to learn whether the soil and
climate were favorable to the growth of trees ; and what kind of
trees were best adapted to different localities. Cottonwood, box-
elder, black walnut, green ash, ailanthus, catalpa, elm, honey locust,
gray willow, soft maple, and osage orange were the principal varieties
66o MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
of trees planted. Their growth was marvellous. In eight years
some of the cottonwoods were fifty feet high ; honey locust, twenty-
five ; gray willows, forty ; box-elder, black walnut, and maples, twenty.
A report of the Missouri River, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad,
October, 1882, says: —
*' Three hundred and twenty acres are planted, and we are now
planting 180 acres more. That will be finished before winter sets
in, or before April i, 1883. The plantation consists of catalpa {spe-
ciosa), with the exception of a few acres. They are all planted 4 by
4 feet apart, containing 2,720 trees to the acre. The land is prepared
same as for corn, and the trees are planted with spades. The catalpa-
trees planted in 1878, after four summers' growth, are 10 to 15 feet
high and 2^ to 3^^ inches in diameter. Three years planted, 5 to 9
feet ; two years planted, 2>'k to 6 feet (a drought last year) ; one year
planted, 3 to 4 feet. On rich land these trees shade the ground
after two years' cultivation. On poorer land they require three
years' cultivation.
** On the Hunnewell plantation, three miles from Farlington, we
have already planted 175 acres catalpa {spcciosd) and ailanthus, and 60
acres of the white ash. The catalpa are one and two years planted ;
we will have 285 acres on the above plantation between now and
April next, all catalpa and ailanthus, making 560 acres on the Hun-
newell plantation. Our contract requires 2,000 trees to the acre
when they are 4 to 6 feet high. Nearly every acre on both planta-
tions will contain 2,500 trees; every acre will contain over 2,000
trees."
The St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railroad reported about
the same time : —
''We have no trees planted on our road excepting 50,000 catalpa-
trees on right of way near Charleston, Mo. We have a plantation or
farm of catalpa-trees (100,000 trees) on Belmont branch, eighteen miles
from Belmont, Mo. The above were all raised from seed. We also
have a catalpa farm of 250,000 trees at Bertrand, Mo., about twenty
miles from Bird's Point, on the Cairo branch of this road. These were
planted in June, 1880, from slips. Have been cultivated twice, and
are now in fine, thrifty condition. Will average about eight feet high,
and will not require any cultivation after next year."
Mr. Crofutt said of the Union Pacific Railway, at that time, which
planted immense numbers of the eucalyptus, or Australian blue gum-
tree : —
''These trees are planted along the sides of the streets, around
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE,
66 1
public buildings, in the grounds of private residences, and by the
Railroad Company in immense quantities. The* latter had 300,000
of these trees growing beside their road and around their stations in
the year 1877, and we understand 500,000 more are to be set out as
soon as they can be procured. One peculiarity of this tree, besides
its being an evergreen and unusually thrifty, is, that it will grow on
the most sandy, alkaline, dry, and barren soil, and it is said to be a
sure preventive against chills and fever, where it is grown in profu-
sion. Some claim that it is fire-proof, and that shingles or plank
sawed from these trees will not burn, and for that reason they are
very much esteemed in Australia, — its native country, — and from
PIONEER FARMER'S HOME IN MONTANA
which the first on this coast were imported. There are one hundred
and twenty-five known species of the eucalypti, about fifty of which
are found in California."
The foregoing facts are sufficient to introduce the reader to a
charming industry which is comparatively unknown in the East.
Here shade trees are chiefly planted for beauty and comfort ; but in
the New West both of these objects are secured together with large
profits.
Eastern people wonder over the rush of farmers into Dakota,
Montana, and other sparsely populated portions of the New West.
The gold-fields of California never created more enthusiasm among
enterprising men than have the wheat-lands of Dakota. A traveller
who saw for himself, two years ago or more, said : —
662 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
"They are coming by excursions, in regular trains, sleepers, and
stock cars ; by carriages, white-covered wagons, on horseback, and on
foot. They are coming by battalions and columns, by townships
and counties, all flocking out here to settle Dakota. Every shade of
business, every class of men and women, are represented. The
lawyer has left his brief, the doctor his patients, the merchant locked
his store, the banker closed his bank, the mechanic dropped his tools,
the laborer quit his work, the farmer sold his possessions, the teacher
resigned his position, and all rush pell-mell for Dakota to secure a
quarter-section of her dirt — the sure foundation of a fortune. Some
come for health, and all for wealth, but few are dissatisfied. Hun-
dreds who emptied their pocket-books to obtain the fourteen dollars
necessary to file upon their land three years ago are to-day worth
from two to three thousand dollars, with good farms and happy
homes."
The pioneer who was content and happy with his humble accom-
modations for a few years, as seen in the foregoing illustration, found
ample reward for his labor and self-denial in his future independence
and competency. An actual fact will confirm this statement.
A pioneer farmer from New Hampshire rented an eighty-acre
farm in Montana, in 1870, on which there was a small log cabin and
barn. Without capital, and with but one team, he raised two thou-
sand four hundred bushels of wheat, which he sold for enough to
enable him to purchase the farm, pay some old debts, and settle his
family thereon, the next year. Another larger crop still replenished
his purse, and sent him on his way rejoicing. Then he fought grass-
hoppers two years, and harvested fair crops notwithstanding their
ravages. In 1875 he cleared something over four thousand dollars ;
and in 1877 he raised a large crop of barley, from which he realized
five thousand dollars. The other crops raised that year were suffi-
cient to pay hired help and incidental expenses, so that the barley
crop was a net profit. The largest crop raised any single year was
in 1 88 1, when he threshed twelve thousand bushels. Ascertaining
that his land was well adapted to raising barley for brewers' use, he
devoted considerable of his fields to it, the last three crop's amounting
to from five to seven thousand dollars annually. His large crop
raised last year would have exceeded any other had it not been for
the low prices caused by competition inaugurated by the Northern
Pacific Railroad. The wheat crop of his farm last year yielded some-
thing over twelve hundred sacks of flour. The only crop failure
during the past thirteen years occurred in 1876, we believe, when his
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
663
five-hundred-acre field of growing grain was completely destroyed by
a hail-storm, the loss of which was fully ten thousand dollars. The
work of the storm was so complete that he did not raise enough for
seed. Yet, with this failure and the disadvantage of starting with
nothing and overburdened with several thousand dollars of debts
contracted in mining operations, he has achieved a great success at
farming. His herd of cattle has increased to over one hundred head,
and they are of the best Shorthorn stock, and among which there
are quite a number of first-class milch cows. His herd of mares,
young colts, and yearlings numbers upwards of sixty head, and they,
too, are good stock, for he will have no other. While speaking of
PLEASANT VIEW FARM.
some of his accumulations, it may be well to mention that he has a
fine meadow and breeding farm bordering on the Missouri River, and
a ferry on a direct road leading to Helena, a large steam saw-mill,
shingle, lath, and planing mill, well located, the result of his farm.
The above is the farm as it now is — known as " Pleasant View
Farm," Missouri Valley, Meagher Co., Mon.
Another farmer, in Gallatin Co., Mon., began in a small way
twenty years ago, gradually enlarging his farm as the sale of his
crops enabled him to make purchases, until, at the end of ten years,
his farm embraced six hundred and eighty acres, all of which he
fenced and divided into mowing-fields and pastures. He put up
seven miles of fence on his farm.
664 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
The result of his last ten years' operations is of special interest.
In 1875 his crop, seventy acres of spring wheat, yielded three thou-
sand bushels, and from ten acres of oats he threshed six hundred
bushels. The grasshoppers in 1866 were so numerous that he did
not put in any crop. He summer-fallowed his land, and devoted his
time to building his dwelling and making other improvements. In
1877 he cultivated one hundred acres, raising three thousand eight
hundred bushels of wheat and about six hundred bushels of oats.
The grain was invaded by grasshoppers, which reduced the yield
materially, yet the crop was profitable, as he sold the wheat at a
dollar a bushel. In 1878 he bought and farmed more land. From
sixty acres of sod-land he threshed sixteen hundred bushels of wheat,
while the old land yielded about the same as formerly. The entire
crop, except oats, which he used for feed, was marketed at one dollar
per bushel. From one hundred acres of winter wheat raised in 1879
he threshed three thousand six hundred bushels, and his ten-acre oats
crop yielded five hundred bushels. The markets were dull that year,
and he was able to realize only about eighty cents a bushel for wheat.
In 1880 his crop of one hundred acres of wheat yielded something
over three thousand eight hundred bushels. His oats crop of a little
less than twenty acres amounted to eighteen hundred bushels, which
sold readily at one and a half cents per pound. The wheat crop,
however, was damaged by frost, and was sold at from fifty cents to
one dollar per bushel, the crop averaging about seventy-five cents per
bushel. The year 1881 his farm of one hundred acres, sown and
raised, yielded three thousand nine hundred bushels of wheat, and
from ten acres of oats the yield was seven hundred bushels. He
made flour of the wheat, and sold the same at three dollars per sack.
The oats he sold at one and a half cents per pound. In 1882, from
sixty acres of oats he threshed four thousand eight hundred bushels,
and from fifty acres of wheat he threshed two thousand five hundred
eighty bushels. The crop of 1883 was eighty-four and one-half acres
of wheat, which yielded three thousand four hundred bushels, and
twenty-four and one-half acres of oats threshed seventeen hundred
bushels. The oats were marketed at a dollar and ten cents per hun-
dred pounds, and the wheat made into flour is selling at the rate of
from fifty to eighty-five cents per bushel, which was quite satisfactory
to the proprietor.
In addition to farming, the proprietor of this farm, which is now
known as the "Albino Park Farm," added stock-raising, in a limited
way, to his enterprise ; and now his farm, horses, and cattle are worth
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
665
thirty thousand dollars, though he would not sell out for that amount.
The following cut gives a good view of the farm as it now is.
Although Montana has fourteen million acres of heavy forest,
the Territory has sixteen million acres of land suitable for cultiva-
tion. In 1880 Montana stood at the head of the list, in number of
bushels of wheat, rye, and oats raised per acre. A bulletin from the
Agricultural Bureau at Washington showed that in the year 1880
the total number of acres sown in wheat in the Territory was seven-
teen thousand six hundred and sixty-five, and the total product was
four hundred and sixty-nine thousand six hundred and eighty-eight
ALBINO PARK FARM.
bushels. This is something over an average of twenty-six and three-
fourths bushels to the acre. The closest competitors are Washing-
ton Territory, which averaged twenty-three bushels to the acre, and
Colorado, which produced twenty-two bushels. Utah only produced
some sixteen bushels to the acre ; California, fifteen bushels ; Minne-
sota, between eleven and twelve bushels ; and Ohio, the largest wheat-
growing State in the Union, but eighteen bushels to the acre. Tests
also made at Washington by the government authorities have dem-
onstrated that Montana wheat produces stronger flour, and a larger
quantity, than any produced by the best wheat-growing districts in
the Union. To realize, too, the extent of Montana's wheat product
per acre, it is only necessary to mention that the average per acre
666
MARVELS OF THE NEW 'WEST.
throughout the United States is only a fraction over twelve bushels.
The bulletin showed that in nearly all the cereal products Montana
averaged a higher number of bushels per acre than the United States,
as follows : —
Wheat
Rye
Oats
Indian Corn 28
Buckwheat . .
Barlev 22
UNITED STATES.
Average per Acre.
MONTANA.
Average per Acre
12 bushels.
2(>K
bushels.
10
28
<(
25 "
37
<(
28
28
"
13
12
"
30
CART SPREADER.
The high northern altitude of Montana does not appear to be un-
favorable to the rapid and thrifty growth of the cereals. Contrary
to the ideas of Eastern people, who shiver when they think of dwell-
ing so far north, the climate and
rich soil appear to be adapted
to each other, so that large re-
ward for light labors is the far-
mer's experience.
Robert E. Strahorn, who
speaks from observation, has
so much valuable information
to impart concerning Montana,
that we quote him at some
length : —
"An ex-surveyor-general of the Territory estimates that there is,
in the more prominent valleys alone, room for thirty-six thousand
first-class farms of one hundred and sixty acres each, while another is
of opinion that there is a strictly agricultural domain here greater in
extent than the entire area of Ohio. . . .
" Irrigation has generally been considered a necessity, although I
know of localities in Montana in which from twenty-five to forty
bushels of wheat to the acre were produced without it the past sea-
son. Thousands of acres of the richest and warmest soils — those
found high up on bluif and mountain sides — were in 1877 sown with
fall wheat, and the harvest last year of this grain, produced without
irrigation, was so bountiful that many farmers who have hitherto
raised spring wheat exclusively in the valleys, are now resorting to
the hitherto despised highlands. Snow falls deeper on these alti-
tudes than in the valleys, and keeps the grain well covered during
much of the winter. However, the most conservative engineers and
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
667
others who are thoroughly famiUar with the country, and whose opin-
ion is entitled to credence, admit that three-fourths of the entire
agricultural area, or twelve million acres, can be irrigated. The
thirty thousand acres now in wheat [1881] produce an average of
twenty-five bushels per acre. Improved cultivation would increase
this average, as is shown by many farms whose average rarely falls
below thirty bushels, and often reaches forty bushels, per acre. The
man of figures can readily see that the production of one hundred
million bushels of wheat per annum need not be postponed to a
HAY-TEDDER.
very distant future in Montana, if navigable waters reaching from
her centre to the sea and the railways afford proper avenues to
market.
'* Ploughing for spring wheat commences in February, and the
wheat is often sown during the same month. Montana wheat, by a
recent comparative analysis at St. Louis, takes precedence of Minne-
sota spring or western winter grades. Oats are frequently raised
weighing forty-four pounds to the measured bushel. Wheat can be
raised at fifty cents per bushel, or $12.50 per acre, taking the low
average of twenty-five bushels, and at ordinary prices will net at
668
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
about $14 per acre. Oats can be raised at an expense of $11 per
acre, and yield a larger profit than wheat. Corn is not produced on
a very large scale on account of cool nights in moist locations. It
can be raised at a cost of $7.50, and will return about the same profit
as wheat. Potatoes can be raised at a cost of $25 per acre, and will
return a profit of from $75 to ^90 per acre. . . . One man can at-
tend to sixty acres of wheat, which will yield, in the best season,
three thousand bushels, equal to twelve hundred bags of flour of one
hundred pounds each, which may ordinarily be calculated to sell for
three dollars per bag, yielding an aggregate of $3,600. The cost of
seeds, sowing, irrigation, harvesting, threshing, and flouring will not
exceed $14 per acre. The producer thus realizes a net income of
$2,760, or about $46 per acre.
*' Exceptional yields of grain and vegetables are chronicled which,
to the farmer on artificially fertilized soils in the East, would seem
simply impossible. At various Territorial fairs, held at Helena,
samples of wheat yielding sixty to one hundred bushels per acre, of
barley from seventy-five to one hundred bushels per acre, and of
potatoes five hundred to six hundred and thirteen bushels per acre,
have been exhibited, with sworn statements of parties who measured
the ground and crops. The average yield of wheat is placed by resi-
dents at thirty bushels per acre, twice as large as that of the great
wheat State of Minnesota, and nearly three times as large as that of
Ohio."
Mr. Strahorn continues : " Following are the names of several
prominent farmers of different valleys, with size of fields, amount of
grain threshed, the average yield per acre for one season, and the
selling price of the crop : —
NAME.
LOCATION.
FIELD IN
ACRES.
CROP AND YIELD
IN BUSHELS.
AVERAGE
PER ACRE.
BUSHELS.
VALUE OF
CROP.
A. G. England . .
Missoula Valley
160
Wheat,
7,000
AZYa
^8,400
A. G. England . .
Missoula Valley
40
Oats,
2,000
50
1,200
Robert Vaughn . .
Sun River Valley
4
Oats,
410
\o2y^
246
M. Stone
Buoy Valley
100
Wheat,
6,000
60
7,200
Brockway's Ranch
Yellowstone Valley
8
Oats,
600
75
360
Brigham Reed . .
Gallatin Valley
6
Oats,
620
103K
362
Marion Leverich .
Gallatin Valley
23
Wheat,
1,150
50
1,380
William Reed . . .
Prickly Pear Valley
50
Oats,
3.500
70
2,100
Charles Rowe . . .
Missouri Valley
23%
Wheat, )
Oats, S
1,200
45
1,250
Con Kohrs ....
Deer Lodge Valley
II
Oats,
1,200
100
720
John Rowe ....
Gallatin Valley
85
Oats,
4,982
57
2,989
Robert Barnett . .
Reese Creek Valley
48
Wheat,
2,200
45f
2,640
S. Hall
Ruby Valley
400
Wheat,
10,000
50
11,000
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
669
Potatoes weighing from two to four pounds are frequently raised
in Montana ; turnips weighing thirty pounds each ; and rutabagas
from fifteen to twenty pounds.
Mr. Strahorn gives the quantity of vegetables raised by the sol-
diers of Fort Ellis, Gallatin Countv, in one season, as follows : —
COMPANY AND NO. OF p„T-,T-np-Q
REGIMENT. | ACRES. POTATOES.
ONIONS.
TURNIPS.
CARROTS.
BEETS.
PARSNIPS.
CABBAGE.
F, 2d Cavalry . . .
G, "
H, "
L, "
G, 7th Infantry . .
5
6
5
3
Bu.
1,100
1,200
700
315
Bu.
90
60
130
50
6
Bu.
500
60
35
150
40
Bu.
60
35
40
25
12
Bu.
50
15
40
Bu.
ID
20
25
20
Head.
3,610
2,500
3,300
2,300
800
Total
26^
3,865
336
785
172
105
75
12,500
AUTOMATIC STACKER AND GATHERER.
'' General Brisbin states that the value of the several articles, if
they had to be bought in Montana, would be about as follows :
Potatoes, $3,865 ; onions, $2,352; turnips, $85 ; carrots, $206.40; beets,
$315 ; parsnips, $225 ; salsify, $9.40; cabbage, $125 ; total, $7,182.80,
from a twenty-six acre field. Rutabagas raised weighed as high as
seventeen and one-half pounds each, without the tops. One potato
weighed four pounds, and another three pounds four ounces."
In prosecuting agriculture on so large a scale a:: men do in the
New West, human ingenuity has been taxed to the utmost to invent
machinery equal to the occasion. The above illustration of the
6/0
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
"Drain Improved Automatic Hay Stacker and Gatherer" is one of
the latest and best inventions. It not only lightens the labors of the
farmer, and removes drudgery, but it greatly facilitates hay-harvesting
on bonanza farms.
Those stockmen who are providing winter feed for their flocks and
herds find this machine to be a real God-send to them. Without it
they could not perform the task of putting up sufficient hay to feed
the multitude of cattle on their ranges. But with it,, they can now,
at small expense, stack sufficient hay to assure good feeding for their
immense herds in the severest winters. One man and three boys
and five horses will put up as much hay, with this machine, as ten
men and six horses could by the old method, and do the work better.
PIONEER HOME IN DAKOTA.
One stacker and two gatherers will stack from twenty to thirty
acres per day ; saving from fifty to seventy-five per cent of the
expense by the old way. The hay, too, is worth from fifty cents to
one dollar per ton more that is handled in this way.
The stacker puts up the hay in a much better manner than it can
possibly be done by hand ; the hay being thrown in the centre of the
stack and not over the sides, as is done by hand, so that when the
stack settles, it leaves the centre the highest. The hay is thrown on
the stack straight, just as it comes from the mower, so that it sheds
rain much better than when stacked by the old method. It is esti-
mated that the price of a stacker and two gatherers is saved in put-
ting up every seventy tons of hay with this machinery. And many
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE. 6/1
times its price is often saved in patting up hay from storms. It will
stack hay in wind when it cannot be stacked with a fork. It is the
only stacker that will handle hay in windy weather, on account of its
peculiar construction. It is the only stacker that will not scatter the
hay for the same reason. The pitcher-teeth are so made that they hold
the hay from blowing away, and it is not released until the forward
teeth pass over on the brace on the top of the stacker, when the hay
is all released together and can fall on no place save on the stick.
This is the only stacker that is arranged with adjustable pitcher-
teeth, which is very desirable in topping off, and will enable a party
to make a stack twenty-five feet high if desirable by pitching from
the top of the stacker. Ordinarily it makes a stack about seventeen
feet high without going to this trouble. It is the only mounted
stacker in the market, and is operated and moved from place to place
on an ordinary farm wagon.
Life in all the great agricultural regions of the New West is much
alike. In the beginning there were hardships and self-denials of
which the present knows nothing. The contrast between then and
7tow is almost incredible ; and it is due to agriculture that the Terri-
tory has taken such remarkable strides.
In the first place, Dakota is twice as large as all the New England
States combined, more than three times the size of New York State,
four times as large as Ohio, and nearly twice as large as England,
Wales, and Scotland together. Twenty-four such States as Massa-
chusetts can be set down upon its vast domain without crowding. If
it were as densely populated as Great Britain, it would number over
fifty million people ; if as densely settled as Belgium, it would have a
population of seventy-two million. Here is an empire in itself. And
five years ago even, the scanty population of one hundred thirty-five
thousand one hundred and eighty people produced twelve million
bushels of wheat in one season. The following year the crop was
almost double. Since that time a steady stream of settlers has
poured into the Territory, and the wheat fields have multiplied by the
thousand, until now the population are looking forward to no distant
period when tivo hundred million bushels of wheat will be raised in
one season.
In 1885 Dakota's exhibit at the Exposition in New Orleans was
the largest and most remarkable of all the Territorial departments.
The arrangement was unique ; and the preparation, on so grand a
scale, denoted that Dakota farmers were confident of success.
Mr. S. S. Keeler, livimr about six miles south of Wessinc^ton, on
6/2
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE. 673
section 2-1 10-66, has contracted all his crops of this season, the
figures of which will show for themselves whether or not it pays to
farm in Dakota. The following is a statement of his whole season's
work : —
Breaking 94 acres, (5 $3 ^282.00
Backsetting same 141.00
47 bushels seed wheat, @ ^1.25 5^-75
Seed oats 53-75
6 pounds of onion seed i3-50
25 bushels seed potatoes 20.00
Labor of spring's work, including board, men and horses 180.00
Expense of harvest 15400
Expense of threshing 192.64
Total ^1,095,64
Products.
900 bushels wheat, @ $i ^900.00
3,000 bushels oats, @ 30 cents 900.00
400 bushels onions, @ 75 cents 300.00
400 bushels potatoes, (rv 40 160.00
Total ^2,260.00
Total expense 1,095.64
Balance ^1,164.34
Mr. Nichols had one hundred and fifty-six acres in crops as follows :
wheat, forty ; oats, one hundred and ten ; barley, six. The expenses
include his own time and that of his sons, so that the result is an
absolute net. This statement does not include wear and tear of
machinery, neither does it include breaking, haying, dairy and garden
produce, or increase of stock : —
Expenditures.
29^ days, seeding, hand and team, @ $4 ^117.00
50 bushels seed wheat, @ $i 50.00
15 bushels seed barley, @ 50 cents 7.50
235 bushels seed oats, @ 45 cents ^05-75
16 days, hand and team, harvesting, (Tr; $5 80.CO
26^ days, shocking, @/ $2 53-00
16^ days, hand and team, stacking, (a\ $5 82.50
i6j^ days, hand, stacking, (/r, $2 33-00
70 days' work, thrfeshing, (a, $2 '140.00
8 days, team, threshing, Q}, $2 16.00
Threshing 217 bushels barley, (^») 4 cents 8.68
Threshing 800 bushels wheat. Or 5 cents 40.00
Threshing 5,000 bushels oats, @ 3 cents 150.00
70 days' backsetting, ('(, ^4 280.00
260 pounds twine, (n) 20 cents 52.00
Expense of crop $1,214.43
6/4 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
Receipts.
840 bushels wheat by weight, @, 44 cents , ^369.60
225 bushels barley by weight, @, 50 cents 112.50
6,000 bushels oats by weight, (re) 20 cents i,2co.oo
Crop brought $1,682.10
Total expense 1,214.43
Profit $467.67
Who has not heard of the great " Dalrymple Farm" of Dakota?
It contains seventy-five thousand acres, thirty thousand of which
were in wheat last year. The original cost of the land was from
forty cents to five dollars an acre. The farm has four great divisions,
all of them under the supervision of Oliver Dalrymple. The four
great divisions of the farm are subdivided into sections of five thou-
sand acres with a superintendent for each. Then sections of five
thousand acres are halved, giving subdivisions of two thousand five
hundred acres.
Each division has buildings adapted to the wants of a great farm.
There is a house for the superintendent, a stable, blacksmith's shop,
granary, machine-house, and an ample boarding-house for employees.
The division foreman and gang foreman are mounted, and each one
superintends twenty teams.
There are twenty steam-threshers on the farm and over one hun-
dred self-binding reapers. The horses and mules required amount to
several hundred ; and there are so many men that they can be profit-
ably managed only by military rules. Hence, army rules are here
applied to agriculture ; and the most complete order and systematic
labor prevails under General Dalrymple. Each season is a campaign
well-planned and fought to conquer the earth. Mr. Henry Van Dyke,
Jr., speaks as follows, in Harper s Magazine, of his ride over the
farm : —
*' A little way off we saw a long line of teams pushing slowly
across the boundless plain. They were ploughing. It wa*' a very
different sight from that ploughing which we have seen in the steep
fields of New England, where Johnny steers the old horse carefully
along the hillsides, and the old man guides the plough as best he
can through the stony ground ; different, also, from that ploughing
which Rosa Bonheur has painted so wonderfully in her picture at the
Luxembourg, in which the French peasant drives his four-in-hand of
mighty oxen, butting their way through the misty morning air.
Here on this Western farm there were twelve sulky ploughs, each
drawn by four mules, moving steadily along a two-mile furrow. The
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE. 675
shining blades cut smoothly into the sod, and left a rich black wake
of virgin earth behind them. As we looked out over the great plain,
and slowly took in the extent, the fertility, the ease of cultivation, we
echoed the local brag : ' This is a big country, and don't you forget
it!'
" 'Yes,' said Gad, 'that is the trouble : it's too big. I can't get it
on canvas. A man might as well try to paint a dead calm in mid-
ocean.'
" We spent an evening in the comfortable home of one of the
superintendents, and heard him explain the system of book-keeping.
Every man is engaged by contract, for a certain time, to do certain
work, for certain wages. He receives his money on presenting ta
the cashier a time check certifying the amount and nature of his
labor. The average price paid to hands is eighteen dollars a month
and board. In harvest they get two dollars and twenty-five cents a
day. A record is kept by the foreman of the amount of wheat turned
out by each thresher, by the driver of each wagon of the amount of
wheat loaded by him, and by the receiver at the elevator of the
amount of wheat brought in by each team. All the farm machinery
and the provisions are bought at first hands for wholesale prices.
Mules and horses are bought in St. Louis. Wheat is not stacked or
stored, but shipped to market as rapidly as possible. Everything is
regulated by an exact system, and this is what makes the farms a
success.
" Brains and energy in the man who controls them and in those
whom he chooses as his subordinate officers — this is the secret of
the enormous profits which have been made on the Dalrymple farms.
The cost of raising the first crop is about eleven dollars an acre ;
each subsequent crop costs eight dollars. The average yield for this
year was about nineteen bushels to the acre. This could be sold at
Fargo on Oct. i for eighty cents a bushel. A brief calculation
will give you four dollars and twenty cents per acre profit on the new
land, and seven dollars and twenty cents for all the rest ; or, say,
one hundred thirty thousand dollars gain on one crop. These figures
I believe to be too small, rather than too large."
The Moorhead Neivs said, last season: "Just east and south of
the city may be seen a continuous field of wheat containing sixteen
thousand acres, which promises to yield not less than twenty bushels
per acre. Three hundred and twenty thousand bushels of No. i hard
from a single field is not bad."
J. W. Barnum, Esq., a prominent farmer in Sanborn, Dak., spent
6^6 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
the winter of 1885 in his old home in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he
defended his adopted Territory by the following amusing and instruc-
tive letter to the Eagle : —
" You will remember the writer as an old resident of. the Twenty-
third Ward during the winter. In the summer he is a North-Dakota
farmer. Last February you gave an extended report of his lecture
at our Academy of Music, on bonanza farming in Dakota ; stock-
raising in Montana, Oregon, and Washington Territory ; the attrac-
tions to tourists in the Bad Lands, National Yellowstone Park,
Columbia River, and Puget Sound, — in aid of a 'little Congrega-
tional church on the hill ' in Dakota, named after our Brooklyn
Central, Rev. Dr. Behrends. Before we left for Dakota, in July,
we subscribed for the Daily Eagle, to be sent to Sanborn, Barnes
County, Dak. For three months you have been ' touching us on the
quick * by mailing your paper, printed label, to Sanborn, * Barren '
County, instead of Barnes. We said to ourself quietly, ' We will get
even with the Eagle, on our return home this fall, by bringing
samples from this ''Barren County."' We hand you herewith sam-
ples of our No. I hard wheat, and your common Long Island Swedish
yellow turnip, which grows here, in your favored garden patch for
Brooklyn and New York, about the size of your double fist. This
sample, as large as we could well bring in our trunk, weighs twelve
pounds ; there were some which weighed thirty-nine pounds. They
are solid, crisp, and sweet. Beets twenty-three pounds. Cabbages
twenty-five pounds. How is that fpr * Barren' County } Our wheat,
your millers will tell you, is superior to any grown south of that
latitude ; indeed, we claim a practical monopoly in raising this variety
of ' hard ' wheat, as it cannot be raised in perfection south of that
cold latitude ; when taken south it deteriorates. It is used largely
in mixing with your soft wheat to grade up your flour. Not only
wheat and all the cereals, but vegetables and all root crops, 'reach
perfection there, near the northernmost limit of their production.'
This is a surprise to nearly all Eastern and Southern people. The
pecuharity of our 'hard' spring wheat (rightly named, for you should
get your teeth insured before you bite it) is its being almost solid
gluten ; when cut into it looks like a piece of solid glue ; the soft
wheats, when cut, on the inside are floury or starchy ; the glutinous
properties are what the millers want to make the best, strong bread-
making flour. In the recent long report of the Bureau of Chemistry
of the United States Department of Agriculture, reference is made to
two thousand seven hundred specimens of wheat analyzed, as well as
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE. 677
the flour made from them, and the bread baked from the flour. The
chemist's comment on this analysis is as follows : ^The Eastern flour
is poorer in nitrogen and gluten than any of the others. In fact, the
flours follow closely the composition of the wheat, which has been
examined from the same parts of the country. Dakota makes a flour
richer than any other in gluten, in the same way that it produces a
wheat of that description. The average of these Northwestern spring
wheat flours is high, and, in comparison with the rest of the country,
they are the richest which have been analyzed.'
"When you go to the World's Fair in New Orl'eans, Alexander
McKenzie, the commissioner for Dakota, will show you a pumpkin
measuring eight feet long, six feet in circumference, and weighing
one hundred and sixty-eight pounds ; and a squash weighing one
hundred and fifty pounds ; sweet and Irish potatoes, — three weighed
thirty-one pounds ; one hundred and one pounds of honey taken from
one stand of bees, — still * it is so cold the bee cannot live there.'
This fair will teach you poor Easterners, who express so much sym-
pathy for us ('forty degrees below zero'), that we can raise some-
thing besides blizzards and cyclones in North Dakota. Those who
take an interest in agricultural development may be sure the Dakota
exhibit alone will well repay for the trip to New Orleans. We saw
the Burleigh County exhibit at Bismarck, the capital of the Territory,
before the long train started on its triumphal march to the Gulf.
We predict they will repeat their triumph at Minneapolis, over the
Northwest in 1882 and 1883, carrying off the 'silk banner for the
best county exhibit.' You will have noted Governor Pierce's latest
estimate puts the population now at nearly five hundred thousand.
If you were not so strongly Democratic, we would whisper in your
ear, will it pay you Democrats, in the long run, to keep us out of
statehood because we are so largely Republican. Dakota must be
prominently in the eye of the people, seeking to better their condi-
tion, as witness how she leads all the States and Territories in the
amount of Government land sold — six million acres in each of the
last two years, enough to make three States of the size of Massachu-
setts. No section of our country is so rapidly developing in popula-
tion, churches, and schools. There are two thousand school-houses ;
thirty million bushels is her wheat product this year. Dakota has
demonstrated within the last two years that its grasses are fully as
nutritious and much more abundant than those of Montana, and
stock and sheep raising in the near future will equal in value its
wheat and other cereals. Ninety-two thousand head of young cattle
e-J^ MARVELS OF THE NEJV WEST.
have been brought in, and eighty thousand head of fat beef cattle
taken out, on one line of railroad during the last year. One writer
says : —
" ' It is a misfortune for Dakota that her commissioner cannot
transport to New Orleans a quarter-section of the best land, to show
the soil ; and also take down to that Southern clime some real Dakota
atmosphere, and let them see what a genuine Dakota day is. The
bracing air here is one of the subjects which call for enthusiasm.
Mr. McKenzie says that the Territory has been slandered regarding
its cold weather, for he has lived here all his life, and never saw a
day so cold that he could not be out most of the time.' "
Idaho was comparatively unknown until recently. The comple-
tion of the Oregon Short Line and Utah & Northern Divisions of the
Union Pacific Railway across the Territory opened it to the world.
Its name signifies "Gem of the Mountain," which appears, at first,
like a misnomer to the traveller. But from twelve to fifteen million
of its fifty five million acres are rich and promising; and, under the
magic power of irrigation, will prove second to no part of the New
West in productiveness. Already a tide of immigration is flowing
into it from every quarter of the globe ; and wealthy syndicates are
bringing hundreds of thousands of acres under the transforming
power of irrigation. The record of one of these timely and useful
organizations is before us, — ** The Idaho Land and Water Com-
pany," which has opened three hundred thousand acres of the richest
land in the beautiful Snake River Valley, by irrigating canals north
of Ogden, U.T. To those readers who are shivering at the thought
of dwelling so far north, let me say that the climate of Idaho resem-
bles that of California, where all the cereals and fruits grow thrifty.
In the Snake River Valley " The International Immigrant Union "
is locating a colony under the most favorable auspices. The com-
pany locate settlers on eighty, one hundred and sixty, three hundred
and twenty or six hundred forty acre farms, the settler obtaining
the same from the Government at $1.25 per acre under the *' Desert
Land Act," paying for the same twenty-five cents per acre upon
filing his or her application, and the balance, $1 per acre, at the
end of three years, or before, if water is brought upon the land in
sufficient quantity to irrigate the same. The company Controls the
waters of the Snake River Water Company, having a carrying capacity
of one hundred thousand inches of water, which can be increased as
the demand increases. In order to enable the settler to file the
necessary affidavit to procure his patent to the land, the company
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE. 679
sells to each settler one or more shares in the Canal Company at $\o
a share, thereby making him interested in the irrigation scheme, and
giving him a contract for all the water required to irrigate his land
at ^i per acre per annum. The company also makes special arrange-
ments to convey settlers from New York, Chicago, and Omaha to
Eagle Rock, the headquarters in Idaho, — four days from New York,
three days from Chicago, and two days from Omaha.
It is of great advantage to pioneers to find such arrangement for
their reception in Idaho or any other part of the New West. Set-
tling upon land already under irrigation enables the farmer to com-
mence work at once without experiment or unnecessary delay.
The following paragraph from the letter of a tourist will enlighten
the reader still further upon the climate of that northern latitude : —
" I was surprised to find on my trip on the 19th of December
from Eagle Rock through the Snake River Valley not a particle of
snow; but found farmers busy at work, some ploughing, and others
building and preparing for spring crops. The weather was very
similar to that of Northern California, and I feel sure that anything
that can be grown in California, except semi-tropical fruits, can be
grown in Eastern Idaho."
The diagram on next page, showing the location of the Snake River
Water Company's canals and lands of the International Immigrant
Union capable of irrigation, is furnished that the reader may see how
Eastern capital and enterprise open the most distant agricultural
lands of our national domain to settlement.
From Mr. Straham's official report we add more facts : —
*'The fourth year's growth of apples in Boise Valley has yielded
two hundred pounds ; of cherries, seventy-five pounds ; of peaches,
one hundred and fifty-two pounds ; of pears, one hundred and thirty
pounds ; of plums, one hundred and fifty pounds ; while small fruits,
such as strawberries, currants, gooseberries, blackberries, and rasp-
berries, are very profilic. The growth of wood made by fruit-trees,
and the quantity of fruit often found loading the branches, is almost
incredible. John Lamb, in Boise City, has black locust-trees on
which I was shown limbs which had grown from twelve to fifteen
feet in one season ; and plum, peach, and apple trees, two years from
the graft, full of fruit. In the yard of Governor Neil, at Bois^, I
counted one hundred and forty nearly ripe greengage plums on a
branch seventeen inches long, the plums averaging one and one-half
inches in diameter.
" There is a grand future in store for the Idaho fruit-grower.
68o
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
Moi'xtana to the north, Wyoming on the east, Nevada to the south^.
produce practically no fruit. With her railroads soon reaching the
remotest corners of these Territories, and with a vast consumption
at home, Idaho is assured the best fruit markets in the land. Fruit
can be produced in all her lower valleys, and short-sighted is the
settler who does not take advantage of the above facts."
IRRIGATION It^ IDAHO.
'* The cereals do almost as well in Idaho as the fruits. Oats
yield fifty-five bushels per acre ; wheat, thirty bushels ; rye, twenty-
five bushels ; potatoes, two hundred and fifty bushels. The truth is,
Idaho is one of the best grain-producing regions in the United
States, and in proof of this statement I submit the following official
table of the yield per acre : —
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
68 1
WHEAT.
RYE.
OATS.
BARLEY.
POTATOES.
CORN.
Idaho
Nevada
California
Oregon
Eastern States ....
30
12
21
13
25
H
15
55
31
30
31
31
40
23
23
23
250
95
114
95
69
35
30
34
26
" In one case fifty-four pounds of wheat were produced from a
single square rod, being at the rate of one hundred and forty bushels
to the acre. The wheat produced in this instance has been called
' Idaho white wheat,' and is thought to be superior. It matures
from fall to spring sowing ; is white, beardless, and heavy, and pro-
duces a large proportion of flour.
**Mr. I. N. Costan, a member of the legislature for many years,
and one of the most prominent farmers in the Boise Valley, made the
following statements to me while I wrote them down : —
" ' Last year, 1882, on ten acres of poorest land, with imperfect irri-
gation, raised forty tons of red-clover hay. Sold seventy-five thou-
sand pounds (twelve hundred and fifty bushels) of onions from two
acres. Potatoes only gave two hundred bushels to the acre. Have
raised one thousand bushels on two acres. Have raised one hundred
and thirteen bushels of barley on an acre. Wheat from forty to sixty
bushels ; oats one hundred to one hundred and fifty bushels ; carrots
and turnips equally good with potatoes. Connecticut flint-corn will
grow well, especially on the higher benches ; have raised sixty
bushels to the acre in the bottoms. Prunes, the Germans say, grow
better than in their own country. Apples, pears, peaches, plums,
apricots, cherries, etc., as good, if not better, than in the most favored
spots in California. The elm, soft maple, black-walnut, locust, etc.,
make our best shade trees.'
*' Immediately south of Boise City, Mr. Thomas Davis has an
orchard of some ten thousand apple-trees, which have produced this
season an immense quantity of the choicest fruit ever grown in any
country in the world. The orchard is about twenty years old, and in
excellent condition, except that the superabundance of the yield this
year broke down the limbs of some of the younger trees. Since the
apples began to ripen, men with carts have been constantly engaged
in gathering the fruit carefully and assorting it for the market.
"Preparatory to shipment the apples are packed in fifty-pound
682 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
boxes. They readily find a market in all parts of Idaho and adjoin-
ing States and Territories. No less than two hundred and fifty
thousand pounds of this fruit have already been sent by rail to vari-
ous parts of the Northwest, and Mr. Davis still has as many stored
away in a three-story building, specially prepared for the purpose,
on his premises, and shipments continue to be made almost daily.
Apples boxed and shipped net about $1.25 per hundred pounds, so
we may safely calculate that the fruit already disposed of and that
yet in store will bring Mr. Davis a clear ^6,250. Besides this, he
has one hundred and fifty barrels of vinegar, twenty thousand pounds
of choice dried apples, and a considerable quantity of pears and cider.
Altogether this year the net profit derived from this sample orchard
will reach a handsome $10,000. This is only a sample of what Idaho
is doing in the way of producing fruit which is everywhere pro-
nounced of superior quality and delicious flavor."
The most marvellous things of agriculture, however, belong to
California, whose ''Golden Gate" admits us to even better treasures
than vaults of gold and silver. Between the two mountain ranges —
Sierra Nevada and the Coast Range — lies a rich, fertile valley, which
was once an inland sea. It is forty miles wide, and contains five
million acres of splendid land. This Sacramento Valley has an aver-
age annual rainfall from eighteen to twenty inches, and therefore
yields fair crops, even without irrigation.
The San Joaquin Valley, which begins at Stockton, is not less
fertile than the Sacramento, and contains seven million acres. Add
to this the foot-hills on each side, and adjacent mountain valleys, and
here are nearly twenty million acres of the best land in the world for
cultivation.
While the average rainfall is sufficient to assure good crops, irri-
gation has been extensively introduced so as very largely to increase
production. California is properly called ''Cornucopia of the world."
Grains and fruits of every sort grow luxuriantly, even tropical fruits,
and harvest-time is a season of wonderful revelations. California is
a flower-garden, too, where the size and beauty of floral specimens
defy description.
The year in California is divided into two seasons, the wet and
dry. The wet season commences about the middle of October and
continues until April or May. This is the season for seeding, really
from September to May, so that the farmer has ample time to put in
all the seed he desires to plant. It is claimed that one man, with a
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
683
two-horse team, can put in from two to three hundred acres during
seeding-time.
Haying often commences at the close of the wet season, and con-
tinues, together with harvesting, until September, without a storm
or shower. No arrangement could possibly be made so convenient
for California farmers. They produce three times as much to a man
as do the farmers in any other State of the Union, because of the
aforesaid arrangement of the seasons. They can labor the year
round, if they wish, a season for idleness being unnecessary.
Wheat, barley, and oats are threshed on the field, put up in bags,
and left there for weeks, without any danger of being wet or of
CALIFORNIA FARM HOUSE.
sweating in that dry atmosphere. The farmer may not possess a
building for storing his grain, because it is unnecessary in a climate
where grain can be left safely in the field. Hay is stacked in the
field, and left there until it is wanted. Potatoes are not injured by
being left in the ground long after they are fit to be gathered.
Fruit trees thrive much better in California than in New England.
Apple-trees begin to bear at three years of age, and the peach at two.
The plum and cherry tree grow larger, bear much earlier, and their
fruit is less perishable than kindred fruits in the East. A farmer's
orchard will have apple, peach, pear, cherry, prune, quince, plum,
nectarine, pomegranate, fig— not to mention other fruits — growing
684 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
with a luxuriance such as is not known in New England. Figs yield
two crops in a year. With care, strawberries can be produced in
every month of the year. The orange, lemon, lime, almond, olive,
English walnut, and apricot flourish finely in Southern California.
The best raisins in the world come from this locality.
The growth of fruit and other trees is remarkable. The apricot
often grows to the size of a forest tree. The eucalyptus, a fine ever-
green of the New West, has been known to make twenty feet in one
year. A traveller claims that he saw one eight years old, that was
seventy-five feet high, and two feet in diameter at the base. In the
southern part of the State farmers build fences by sticking into the
ground sticks of willow, sycamore, or cotton-wood, eight feet long. In
two years the farmer has a substantial fence, and cuts therefrom all
the firewood his family require.
Mr. Nordhoff says: "Where nature has done and does so much,
man gains a quick reward for his efforts. Our costliest and rarest
greenhouse flowers grow here out of doors all winter, almost without
care. In the vineyards are planted by the acre the grapes which at
home are found only in the hot-houses of the wealthy. The soil is
so fertile that it is a common saying in the great valleys that the
ground is better after it has yielded two crops than at the first
ploughing ; and though, as a rule, the farmers in Southern California
often live in small and mean houses — the climate which permits chil-
dren to play out of doors without overcoats or shawls for at least
three hundred and thirty days in the year, and which makes the
piazza or the neighboring shade-tree pleasanter than a room, in win-
ter as well as summer — this is because one does not much need a
house. The dwelling is a less important part of the farm than with
us. The climate even in the northern counties does not oblige you
to have a costly or substantial building ; and while the farmer may
and does work in the soil in every month of the year, and has thus an
enormous advantage over his Eastern friend, on the other hand I do
not exaggerate when I say that what a farmer in Iowa, Minnesota, or
Kansas must pay out in two years for fuel to keep him and his family
comfortable in winter, and for the shelter of his cattle from cold,
would pay his way to California, and, if he chose well, almost buy
him a farm."
Mr. Nordhoff adds some interesting facts. " Near Marysville, a
farmer, finding that his orchard of apples, pears, etc., did not pay as
well as formerly, bethought him of the castor-bean. He planted sev-
eral acres as an experimental crop, found that his soil was suitable
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
685
686 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
for it, anu I saw on his place one hundred acres in castor-oil. The
plant, which is with us in the East a tender, ornamental shrub, was
planted and hoed or ploughed like corn, and, when ripe, a press in a
shed at the edge of the field made the oil. In the East his adventure
would have needed a solid brick building for his machinery, as well
as costly drying and bleaching rooms. Here the oil was bleached
under a rainless sky, and a shed which could not have cost fifty dol-
lars, sufficiently protected his engine and press."
" In the Napa valley a farmer thought hops would pay. He
planted ten acres, and two crops gave him a handsome little fortune.
Some years ago farmers within reach of the San Francisco market
planted cherries ; and I know a man whose cherry orchard, wherein
Chinese pick the fruit at a trifling expense, has netted him for sev-
eral years past thirty dollars a tree."
The following table shows the number of acres in hops, in several
counties of California, and the increase of 1883 : —
Old Yards. New Yards.
Sacramento and Yolo . . 764 1,062
Sutter 57
Lake 130 ^95
Mendocino 721 926
Santa Cruz 22 92
Napa 66 25
Alameda 70 35
In Other districts of California the increase has been about the
same.
A newspaper in Mendocino County, Aug. 31 of the same year,
the picking season, said : —
" Rev. S. L. Sanford finished picking his hops last Wednesday
morning, and the ten acres yielded forty-six thousand pounds of
green hops, or an average of one thousand five hundred pounds to
the acre. T. J. Fine has been running a force of twenty to twenty-
five pickers in his old field of seven acres, for two weeks, and thinks
it will take a week or ten days to finish up that one field. The yield
is simply enormous, and will not be less than two thousand pounds
dried to the acre. Besides this, he has about eighteen acres of new
hops to pick. In Redwood Valley everybody is busily engaged, and
the families have gone right into the fields and camped, and in one
field there are as many as one hundred pickers. . . . Estimating the
yield of the one thousand six hundred and forty-seven acres of new
and old fields at one thousand pounds to the acre, Mendocino will
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
687
place upwards of one and a half million pounds on the market this
season, but what the net proceeds will be to the producer cannot be
predicted as yet with any degree of assurance.
The exports by rail and sea during the years 1883, 1884, and 1885
were as follows : —
In other parts of the New West, hop-culture is a very profitable
industry, especially in Oregon and Washington Territory. The acre-
age of hops along Puget Sound in 1882 was one thousand acres, pro-
ducing one million six hundred thousand pounds. In 1883 the
acreage was doubled — two thousand acres, producing two million
four hundred thousand. The average price at which the hops were
sold was fifty cents per pound. The highest price was ninety cents
per pound, and the lowest twenty-seven cents. During the last two
or three years the price of hops has fallen considerably.
There is a hop farm in Washington Territory containing three
hundred acres.
Ten years ago California did little at raisin-making, except to dry
a few raisin-grapes, and sell them for ''dried grapes." But now
raisin-making is one of the largest and most profitable industries of
California ; and these raisins are classed with the best raisins in the
New York and Boston markets.
Good land for raisin-culture can be bought in Los Angeles and
San Bernardino Counties for forty and fifty dollars per acre, though
it is claimed that at a hundred and twenty-five dollars an acre the
industry is very profitable. One of the leading raisin-makers of
the State claims that a vineyard of the raisin-grape, irrigated and
under careful cultivation, will yield enough grapes the third year to
pay all the expense of running that year ; and on the fourth year
will yield a crop that will pay the whole cost of land, planting, and
culture up to that time, even where the land has cost one hundred
dollars an acre. He claims that raisins may be raised so as to pay
one dollar per vine, or five hundred and fifty dollars per acre.
688 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
A raisin-dealer of Boston wrote to a California raisin-maker as
follows : —
" I received your raisins last week, and must say they are far
ahead of what I expected to receive. I have only seen one quality
of raisins that surpasses them, and they are what we call the finest
Dehesia, packed by Campuzana Brothers. Allow me to make one
suggestion, and that is, in packing your raisins, especially the finest
that you have, have the papers made of more colors and better
finish ; by so doing you will get a better price, and it will also give
the public an idea that it is the finest fruit packed. One other thing
I noticed, and that was, the skins are apt to be a little tough, but
not one person in a thousand would notice it, and in fact, but few
dealers. The color is all O K, as far as New England trade is con-
cerned. As to the size of the raisins, they are larger than ninety
per cent of the imported fruit that comes to this country. I have
handled raisins for the past ten years, from the cheapest to the finest
imported, and know what I am talking about. A salesman here that
has sold goods for the oldest wholesale house in Boston, says these
raisins are the finest California raisins he ever saw. If you can
improve on them in any way, I don't see but you have a big thing
before you, for it is only a matter of time when the California fruit
will drive the foreign out of the market, and the best brands will
always be in demand, and of course bring higher prices."
The Boston Commercial Btdletiii says : —
" California raisins are made from the Malaga grape, and are large
and of excellent quality, and are acknowledged to be superior to the
foreign. They are also fresher, as they never have the leathery taste
given to the foreign raisins by the sea voyage. Vast quantities of
land are being annually, especially in Southern California, devoted
to the culture of grapes for raisins, and the growers are constantly
increasing and improving their facilities for drying and packing.
They are also introducing a number of Spanish laborers, and will
thus derive all possible advantages from skilled labor. The grapes
can be grown so cheaply in California, and the raisin production is
increasing so rapidly, that, in a few years, possibly in 1885, it is confi-
dently expected that the California raisins can be laid down in this
market at ^1.25 to ;^i.30 for a twenty-four-pound box, at which price
the foreign raisins cannot compete with them."
Wine-making, however, is the leading industry of California, and
grapes are raised for this purpose. The business has increased
remarkably within a few years, as manufacturers have become famil-
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
689
J5fiiiiuiini|ji(|uijiii(;i|ii]iiji!|i
690 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
iar with the improved methods of manufacture. They have wine-
presses now that will crush from eight to ten tons of grapes in
an hour ; and wine-casks that will hold three thousand gallons are
common, while there are some which hold from ten to fourteen
thousand. Eleven years ago California made less than two million
gallons of wine. In three years from that time the quantity was
doubled. Now the annual yield is ten million gallons, and rapidly
increasing. Yet the business is in its infancy. It is claimed that if
ten thousand acres should be planted in vineyards annually, it would
require a century for the State to possess as many vines as have been
destroyed by phylloxera in France within ten years.
'' Vineyards planted but two and a half years are shown which
already produce five tons of grapes to the acre. Five years is the
period required to bring the vines into full bearing. It is estimated
that an acre of vines arrived at this condition will have cost one
hundred and twenty-five dollars, allowing fifty dollars as the price of
the ground. But it is then counted upon for an annual yield of ten
tons of grapes, and these find a ready sale at twenty dollars a ton.
The rate of growth in vegetation is one of the important things to
note. Fruit trees are said to advance as far in three years in this
earthly paradise as in seven at the Eastern seaboard."
The production of honey in the New West has become enormous.
It is in very truth "a flowery land," where bees may revel nearly
every month of the year in fields of floral wealth unsurpassed. The
cut on the following page presents a scene on a bee farm in California,
showing the arrangement of hives, and the general appearance of the
country in which bees specially thrive.
Some of the farms, or ranches, of California are of immense pro-
portions. Mr. Nordhoff gives some idea of these large possessions
by saying : —
" It is a favorite story, that certain men are able to drive a herd
of cattle from the northern counties of the State to San Diego, at its
extreme southern limit, and quarter the animals every night upon
their own territory. Haggin, Carr, and Tevis, whose property I was
privileged to examine considerably in detail, have some four hundred
tJwtisand acres. Much of this was secured for a mere trifle while in
the condition of waste land, and afterwards redeemed. A neighbor
who had acquired a great estate of a similar kind, mainly while hold-
ing the post of surveyor-general of the United States, drew forth one
of the best bon mots of President Lincoln, ' Let me congratulate
you,' said Lincoln, as this gentleman was retiring from office under
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
691
his administration. 'You have become monarch of about all you
have surveyed.'
" The owners do not often live upon their estates, but leave them
in the hands of managers, and draw the revenues. The Haggin, Carr,
and Tevis property is divided into a number of separate ranches, each
BEE CULTURE.
with its resident superintendent. The Bellevue Ranch, so called, is
the centre and focus of authority for the whole. Here is the resi-
dence and office of the general manager, and here are assembled
a force of book-keepers, engineers, and mechanics, who keep the
accounts, map, plan, supervise, construct, and repair, and give to the
whole the clock-work regularity of a great commercial enterprise.
692 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
The numerous buildings constitute a considerable settlement. There
is a '■ store ' of general merchandise and supplies. A dormitory and
a drning-hall have been erected for the laboring hands. A tower-like
water-tank, surmounted by a windmill, and accommodating a milk-
room below, rises at one side. There are shops for the mechanics,
capacious barns, and long sheds filled with an interminable array of
agricultural implements. It is worth while to take a walk past this
collection of reapers, threshers, sulky ploughs, and rakes, and study
out their uses. The immense * header and separator ' rises from the
rest like some awe-inspiring leviathan of the deep. A whole depart-
ment IS devoted to the 'road scrapers,' 'buck scrapers,' and ploughs
of various sorts used in the construction and dredging out of the
irrigating ditches. The soil is fortunately free from stones, and the
work is for the most part quite easy. One enormous plough is seen
which was designed to be drawn by sixty yoke of oxen, and to cut at
once a furrow five feet wide by four deep. Like the famous steam-
ship Great Eastern^ it has defeated itself by pure bulk, and is not
now in use.
"• More than five hundred thousand dollars has been expended on
the great estate in the item of fencing alone. An average of four
hundred laborers is employed, and in the harvest season seven
hundred. The rate of wages is quoted at from two and a half to
three dollars per day to mechanics, and one dollar per day to common
hands. This seems low as compared with information from other
sources, and that which appears in the chronic complaints of the
scarcity of farm labor in the California papers."
Of the orange culture, Mr. Nordhoff says : "■ The seedling orange-
tree bears, at twelve years from the planting, an average of one thou-
sand marketable oranges, and I know of a tree at Riverside which
bore at thirteen years two thousand two hundred and fifty oranges,
which brought the owner seventy-four dollars. The following year
(1880) it bore two thousand fifty. The orange is prone to overbear,
and this tree had evidently done too much, for in 1881 it had less
than half this number of oranges on it.
" They plant from eighty to one hundred trees per acre ; and it is
easy to see that the profits of a bearing orchard, even at the lowest
prices, are very great. Eighty trees, bearing one thousand oranges
each, sold at ten dollars per thousand, would yield a gross return of
eight hundred dollars. Now, one man can cultivate, irrigate, prune,
and care for twenty acres of any of the citrus fruits, and the picking and
boxing cost no more than about one dollar and fifty cents per thousand.
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
693
But at fifteen years old, seedling trees bear two thousand oranges
each, and the average price is now (1883), and will for many years
remain, over twenty dollars per thousand. One of the shrewdest
orchardists at Riverside said to me, ' At half a cent apiece, the
orange crop would still remain the most profitable a man can grow ' ;
and he was right. Half a cent each would be five dollars per thou-
sand ; which for mature trees would still give a gross return of ten
dollars to the tree, or from eight hundred dollars to one thousand
dollars per acre, according to the number of trees planted per acre in
different localities.
CALIFORNIA ORANGE GROVE
" Such returns seem incredible, even to one on the ground ; and I
needed, to enable me to realize the practical results, some such state-
ment as was made to me by one of the most careful and intelligent
orange cultivators I met, — the owner of twenty acres in a choice
location. ' Last year my trees paid the whole of my family expenses
for the year ; that was my first crop. This year I shall make over
five thousand dollars; after next year I am planning to take my
family for six months to Europe, and I expect thereafter to have four
or five months for travel every year, with sufficient means from my
twenty acres to go where my wife and children may wish to go.' "
Alfalfa is Chilian clover introduced into California some twenty
694 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
years ago, and is now grown profitably in nearly all parts of the New
West. In California from three to six crops of it are gathered in a
year, and from one and a half tons to two and a half per acre each
time it is mowed — the grand total per acre for the year being some-
what incredible. In Colorado and other parts of the New West, two
and three crops annually are raised, often two tons to the acre at
each cutting.
Alfalfa is a very nutritious grass, excellent for horses that are not
hard-worked, for milch cows, and even for pigs and fowls. In nearly
every part of California it keeps green throughout the year. But it
requires much water, so that irrigation is indispensable. Its roots
strike deep, much deeper than the clover of New England, making
an occasional soaking absolutely necessary. Under proper treatment^
it becomes one of the most remarkable agricultural products.
Alfalfa appears to grow as thriftily in Idaho as in California, very
much to the surprise of farmers. A Mr. Payne, near Boise City,
raised three hundred and sixty tons of alfalfa on sixty acres of land
(six tons per acre), and one hundred and sixty tons of clover on forty
acres (four tons per acre).
Our limited space will allow no further discussion of agriculture
in California except the addition of miscellaneous facts.
"An immense land bequest was recently made by a San Francis-
can. The late James Irvine left to his only son, among other prop-
erty, one hundred and eighty thousand acres of land in one body in
Los Angeles County. This large domain Mr. Irvine bought jointly
with another man in 1857, paying at the rate of thirty-seven and one-
half cents per acre. In 1875 Mr. Irvine bought out his partner for
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He has since been offered
one million dollars cash for the property. There is a valley of twenty
thousand acres in the tract, worth one hundred dollars an acre, or
two million dollars for the valley. Some small farms have been
carved from this portion and sold at this figure. On the tract is a
coal mine, which is yielding an unfailing supply of coal of good
quality for locomotive purposes, and is under lease to representatives
of the Southern Pacific Company. There are between thirty thou-
sand and forty thousand sheep and several thousand cattle upon this
land. The actual cash value of the whole tract is, at a fair estimate,
about four million dollars."
*'The Los Angeles Herald, speaking of crop prospects in Southern
California, says the demand for the single article of cabbages is sim-
ply enormous. Carload after carload of the popular vegetable is being
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE, 695
shipped to the Territories and to Texas, and bring a return of at least
five hundred dollars an acre to those who raise them. All the pros-
pects for a large fruit crop are fine for the present summer. About
seventeen million grape-vines will this year yield their luscious fruit,
while the peach, apple, pear, and apricot crop will be about double
that of former years."
In 1886 an olive orchard of fifty acres yielded fifty thousand bottles
of oil that were sold for one dollar a bottle — fifty thousand dollars
income from the fifty acres, one thousand dollars per acre !
'' O. Lockwood, of Compton, has an apple orchard of one thousand
trees, which has yielded him one thousand dollars' worth of fruit this
year. Of this, two hundred trees are eight years old, being of differ-
ent varieties, and eight hundred trees of the white winter pearmains,
three years old. Of the older trees Mr. Lockwood has sixty which
have paid lum an average of seven dollars each this year. This
orchard is set out in sandy soil, depth to water being only five feet,
and the trees have had no irrigation for years. This shows conclu-
sively that apple culture in South California is a paying industry."
" Tulare is now making its boasts about a big pumpkin-vine, and
if the story be true, has the floor against all comers thus far. This
particular vine attained immense proportions, and a crop of eighteen
pumpkins was gathered from it, weighing from thirty-five to ninety
pounds, a total weight of one thousand one hundred pounds being
removed from the single vine."
" The largest raisin vineyard in the world is owned and operated
by G. G. Briggs, of Yolo County, containing over one thousand acres
of the choicest varieties of raisin-grapes. The vines are from two to
seven years old, and when they come into full bearing, will yield the
owner a small fortune every year."
'' It is estimated that one hundred and forty thousand acres of
land in California are planted in vineyard, and that two thousand
nine hundred and twenty-six persons are engaged in the grape indus-
try exclusively. Of these, Los Angeles has the largest number, four
hundred and fourteen persons, while Sonoma has two hundred and
eighty-eight; Fresno, two hundred and sixty-four; and San Bernardino,
two hundred and thirty-seven. The land, with improv^ements, is esti-
mated to be worth sixty million dollars, and supports one hundred
and fifty thousand people."
Compared with Kansas and other localities, Colorado is not dis-
tinguished for its agriculture. Yet it is rapidly advancing in this
line, and in due time will make a grand report. Even now the State
696 MARVELS OF THE NEV/ WEST.
ranks high in respect to quality of farm productions and number of
bushels of wheat and potatoes per acre. An average of twenty
bushels of wheat and two hundred of potatoes per acre is a good
showing for the Centennial State, especially when it is known that
thirty bushels of wheat and five hundred of potatoes are sometimes
grown upon an acre.
Colorado contains five million acres of agricultural lands, located
mostly in the valleys of its great rivers. This is but a fraction of its
immense domain of sixty-six million eight hundred and eighty thou-
sand acres, it is true ; but then, this small fraction of territory is
about the size of Massachusetts. It contains quite a nurnber of beau-
tiful parks in the mountains, with deep, rich soil that rewards irriga-
tion and industry with a wealth of products. Four of these parks
are marvellous creations of nature in size, fertility, and beauty.
North Park contains nine hundred and sixty thousand acres, situated
nine thousand feet above the sea-level ; enough land to accommodate
six thousand farmers with one hundred and sixty acres each. And
these farmers will find it to be exhilarating business to till the soil
up nine thousand feet towards the sky. Middle Park contains one
million one hundred and fifty-two thousand acres, about eighty-five
hundred feet above the sea, — a little lower down, to be sure, but
sufficiently high to insure bracing air and. good digestion. This park
would give to each of seventy-two hundred farmers one hundred and
sixty acres. South Park contains one million four hundred and eight
thousand acres, higher up even than North Park, for it is ninety-five
hundred feet above the sea. Here eighty-eight hundred farmers
might find ample room on one hundred and sixty acres each. But
larger than all the three parks named is the San Luis Park, that
spreads out far and wide from the base of the marvellous Mount
Blanca, and contains five million one hundred and twenty thousand
acres, situated seventy-five hundred feet above the sea. Here is
enough land to cut up into thirty-two thousand farms of one hundred
and sixty acres each. The State of Massachusetts could be set down
within this mammoth park, and leave room for a respectable drive-
way around it.
The proprietor of a farm in San Luis Park writes : —
" Wheat I have threshed forty bushels per acre ; an average crop
will be about twenty-five or thirty bushels. On good land oats will
grow six to seven feet high, and seldom lodge as they do in a wet
climate, the straw growing hard and strong, enabling them to bear
up the fine, large heads of grain. I have measured some of them
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE. 697
twenty-two inches in length, and counted several with two hundred
and fifty grains to the head. One of my neighbors this season had a
large field of nearly fifty acres that threshed sixty-eight bushels per
acre, the land being manured to obtain this result. An average crop
of oats will be about thirty-five bushels. Barley will thresh as high
as fifty bushels, an average crop about thirty bushels. Peas I have
threshed forty bushels per acre ; the same land would not yield over
twenty-five of oats. That is the great point in favor of peas, as they
will grow on the very poorest land, and they rather tend to enrich
instead of to impoverish the land, and one pound of peas is equal to
one pound of corn to raise pork, or fed to almost any animal ; there-
fore I say that this valley could raise sufficient pork to supply the
State, and the day is coming when we shall cure and pack that staple
article.
" Some of my potatoes yielded twenty thousand pounds of mar-
ketable potatoes this season per acre. Cabbage, forty thousand pounds
per acre, an average crop being about twenty-five thousand pounds.
An average crop of potatoes is about twelve thousand pounds. I
weighed a cauliflower the past season, and found its weight to be fif-
teen pounds, without a leaf. Beets, carrots, parsnips, and onions do
remarkably well."
Another farmer in the same park writes : —
" The first year broke three acres of land ; planted one acre in oats
and two in potatoes ; latter turned off ten thousand pounds per acre,
and sold for four cents per pound ; total income first year, eight hun-
dred dollars. Second year, used same ground and cut eight tons of
wild hay; income about the same. Third year, cut one hundred tons
wild hay, which sold for fourteen dollars per ton, and later in season
brought twenty-two dollars and a half. Have now been on my farm
for eleven years ; have a good house, barn, and fences, the property
being worth thirty thousand dollars, on which valuation it pays ten
per cent per annum."
Before railroads reached Colorado, many articles of food were
scarce, and fabulous prices were realized. A single farm cleared
seventeen thousand dollars for its owner from a crop of potatoes. A
farmer near Denver planted between two and three hundred acres of
potatoes, which yielded him fifty thousand bushels, and he sold them
for fifty thousand dollars. His yield per acre was much smaller than
that of several Colorado farmers the same year, who raised from five
hundred to eight hundred bushels per acre, though this was an excep-
tional yield.
698 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
The report of the " Denver Chamber of Commerce and Board of
Trade" for 1885 report average crops as follows : —
Wheat, per acre 25 bushels.
Oats, " 45 "
Barley, " 40
Corn, per acre 35 bushels.
Potatoes, " 200 "
Onions, " 250 "
The same report says, also : —
"There are vineyards in the vicinity of Boulder that have for two
years past produced twelve tons of grapes per acre each season, of
marketable, luscious fruit, comprising such varieties as the Concord,
Delaware, Salem, Martha, Brighton, and Catawba, while at Canon
City and near there, in the Arkansas Valley, thousands of vines are
producing every year from six to ten tons per acre without fertilizers,
and not having to be buried in winter. With winter protection, the
choice European and California grapes can be produced abundantly
and profitably, such as Black Hamburg, Sweetwater Chasseles, Tokay,
Missouri, Seedless, Sultana, and Muscats. . . . One orchard near
Florence has produced eight thousand bushels of apples of fine
quality in one year. . . . Colorado apples are especially fine as re-
gards flavor and keeping qualities, and are of good marketable size,
all of which was demonstrated at the New Orleans Exhibition of
1885 and 1886, when over one hundred varieties were there shown,
and captured four out of the twelve first premiums awarded. After
almost every sample from other States had decayed, and even those
from Germany and Russia, ours were in good condition."
Other facts, showing the agricultural marvels of this locality, will
appear in the sequel, as we pass to the consideration of the subject
of Irrigation. A few miscellaneous items of interest, however, may
be added at this point.
Eastern people suppose that Arizona is a barren and desolate
region, when actual experiments have proved that much of the soil
is unsurpassed in richness and fertility. In the southern part of the
Territory the farmer grows two crops a year. Thousands of acres
have been irrigated and cultivated with remarkable success ; and tens
of thousands of acres more are waiting for the magic touch of water
to develop their productive possibilities. Nor is Arizona destitute of
water ; for several of the finest rivers of the New West traverse its
territory. The Pima Indians have raised wheat along the Gila from
time immemorial, and yet to-day the land is as good as new. Within
two years extensive experiments have been made in the Territory to
raise crops without irrigation^ and fifteen bushels of wheat to the
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE. 699
acre was the result, more than the average per acre in the United
States. The following facts will be of interest to the reader ; —
'' Last year Mr. Isaacs received seven and a half pounds of Early
Club wheat from the Granger's Bank in San Francisco, which he
cultivated carefully, dropping it by hand, one grain at a time, from
which he harvested 2,300 pounds. This season he has forty acres of
it, which are counted in with balance of crop at 1,500 and 1,600
pounds per acre. His possessions are: Home place, 400 acres —
in alfalfa, 100 acres; eighty acres wheat, 1,500 pounds per acre —
120,000 pounds; 140 acres barley, 1,700 pounds per acre — 238,000
pounds; eight acres oats, 1,500 pounds per acre — 12,000 pounds ;
garden six acres, 150 fruit-trees, 200 bearing grapes, and three acres
sorghum. On place at west end of Grand Canal, farmed by himself
and J. B. Barton — 650 acres — there are 400 acres wheat, 1,600
pounds per acre — 640,000 pounds ; 250 acres barley, 1,500 pounds
per acre — 375,000 pounds. This is the first crop, which is never
equal to the second or third."
" M. Header has 160 acres just north of town, fronting on the
Prescott road ; has 100 acres in alfalfa and 60 acres in wheat and
barley — 1,500 pounds per acres — 90,000 pounds ; has 5,000 vines in
bearing and 500 fruit-trees, also bearing. He cuts alfalfa for hay ;
next crop will cut for seed and will make 300 pounds per acre, which
will be worth ten cents per pound wholesale. This will make $3,000
for this one crop. Four crops of hay at two tons per acre per crop —
800 tons — which, at eight dollars per ton in stack, will make $6,400,
or $9,400 for the 100 acres in this useful plant. Place is all under
fence ; five strands of barbed wire, making it hog-tight ; cottonwood
posts all growing."
''John B. Montgomery has 287 acres, highly improved, adjoining
town on the south. He has 125 acres in alfalfa and raised 50 acres
of wheat and barley. He has a splendid orchard of choice fruit;
1,000 trees, all told, old and young. They range from three to five
years old. He has 1,000 grape-vines in bearing. Had ripe pears the
15th of June, and his summer apples were gone a long time ago. He
has a dairy of fifty cows, fine stock, breeding nothing but the best.
He has a fine Durham bull, imported, whose blood tells in the young
stock we saw around the place."
We can add only the following facts : —
" The books of one of Wyoming Territory dairymen, which may
be essentially duplicated by scores, show the following for one
year : —
700 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST,
Ranch, site, buildings, etc $1,200
50 cows at $\o; 2 sires at $75 2,150
Two assistants, wages and board 960
50 tons of hay at $6 300
Minor expenses 200
j$4,8io
14,000 pounds butter at 40 cents $5,600
12,000 gallons milk at 30 cents 600
34 calves sold at $10 340
Total $6,540
Less expenses 4,810
Profit one year $1,730
''That her soil, climate, and grass render Wyoming peculiarly-
adapted to the raising of stock, is asserted by those who have tried
it, or have noted the similarity of general conditions to some place of
established reputation of years as a stock country, and is moreover
shown by actual figures. Wyoming pasturage consists of fifty-five
thousand square miles upon which cattle subsist the year round, with
twenty-five thousand square miles additional, which is unexcelled in
summer, while sheltered valleys offer an ever-ready protection to
stock in time of storms.
" It has been proven that the cereals, vegetables, and small fruits
can be raised with uniform success and at magnificent profits. The
area capable of this production includes thirteen million acres, con-
taining these very elements, in constantly renewing quantities, the
lack of which the Eastern farmer must supply by plaster of paris,
bonedust, etc."
A resident of Washington Territory writes : —
" It has been told abroad that we cannot raise fruit in this section
of country, that we are too far north. As a contradiction to this, we
state that within twelve miles of this city there are a dozen orchards,
all thrifty and bearing. We can give the* names of more than fifty
farmers who this year have bought young trees, with which to start
orchards. Mr. H. N. Muzzy, a mile from town north, has this season
set out one thousand apple and two hundred other trees.
" The best contradiction to the assertion that we are too far north,
is in the fact that John Rickey, who lives eighty miles north of
Spokane Falls, has a large orchard, and last season produced a large
quantity of splendid fruit. And still further, there are here on exhi-
bition a few apples forwarded by Judge Labrie, from the seven hun-
dred trees' orchard of F. R. Smith, who lives within a mile of the
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
701
fortA^-ninth parallel, and near Okanagan Lake, a long journey to the
north and west of Spokane Falls. These apples are not very large
and sound, but of excellent flavor, equal to any fruit produced in
Indiana, Ohio, or New York. Mr. Smith had plenty of peaches,
plums, pears, and melons during last season.
'* R. G. Williamson, who came from Kansas five years ago, has oper-
ated a farm five miles east of this place, taking land that was supposed
to be almost worthless, has been marketing gooseberries for four
years, has cherry-trees two years old, bearing fruit, and peach-trees
LOGGING NEAR OLYMPIA.
in bloom the second year from the planting of the pit. He has prunes,
plums, apples, and currants, and has been more fortunate with these
fruits here than he was in Kansas. He gives us the names of half-a-
dozen neighbors who have been equally fortunate in this respect."
The scene represented above is in the woods, near Olympia,
Washington Territory. The most magnificent forests of fir abound
in this region, many of them so enormous in bulk as to suggest the
''big trees " of Yosemite. This lumber region furnishes a large part
of the commerce of Puget Sound, and the linnbcr business has grown
into immense proportions. This fir-tree is found in Oregon as well
702
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
as Washington. Nothing but the expense of carrying lumber around
Cape Horn to foreign countries prevents a vast amount being trans-
ported thither. When the Eads' plan of crossing the Isthmus shall
be consummated, the most profitable and largest business of Oregon
and Washington will be that of lumber.
It is not our purpose to present a view of salmon-fishing on the
Columbia River, — one of the most remarkable industries of the New
West. But since the preceding illustration presents a great industry
of this region, we present one cut to represent the fish-wheel that is
used upon that river in the prosecution of a business which is done
for the world ; for its products extend to every land and sea.
IRRIGATION.
We have made frequent reference to irrigation in different parts of
the New West. Eastern farmers pity the Western farmers, because
they are made dependent upon artificial means to supply water ; and
Western farmers pity the Eastern, because they must depend upon
the uncertain supply of water from the clouds. That the farmers of
the New West have the advantage there can be no question. They
can command water when they want it. If God were to give the
Eastern farmer control of showers and storms, so that by easy act he
could bring a shower or storm at his will, he would stand in about
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE.
703
the same relation to a good supply of water that the Rocky Mountain
farmer does. The latter defies a drought. He knows that the driest
weather will not dry up his crops. The advantage of this arrange-
ment is enforced by the fact that one-fourth of all the crops of the
world, on the average, are destroyed by droughts. There are four
million acres in Colorado and New Mexico watered only by rains,
and they offer poor inducements to men to engage in agriculture.
But irrigation removes this insuperable obstacle, and causes sage-bush
land to yield like a garden.
Originally one farmer
alone, or several unitedly,
met the expense of irriga-
tion. But now large com-
panies are organized to
make money by selling
water to farmers. Also
large companies buy im-
mense tracts of land, and
when they have brought it
under irrigation, cut it up
into farms for sale. Some
facts that follow will in-
terest the reader in this
subject of irrigation.
A writer says : '* Irriga-
tion is simply scientific
farming. The tiller of the
soil is not left at the mercy
of fortuitous rains. His
capital and labor are not
risked upon an adventure.
He can plan with all the certainty and confidence of a mechanic. He
is a chemist, whose laboratory is a certain area of land ; everything
but the water is at hand, — the bright sun, the potash and other min-
eral ingredients (not washed out of the soil by centuries of rain).
His climate secures him always from an excess of moisture, and
what nature fails to yield, greater or less, according to the season, the
farmer supplies from his irrigating canal, and with it he introduces,
without other labor, the most valuable fertilizing ingredients, with
which the water, in its course through the mountains, has become
charged."
IRRIGATING
704
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
A writer in Kansas describes an irrigating ditch as follows : —
'' Last week I visited Spearville, and called at the camp of the
Irrigating Ditch Company ; I was kindly instructed in regard to the
project by John Gilbert, of that city, who has the work in charge.
The ditch begins above Cimarron, passes just north of Spearville,
and re-enters the Arkansas at Kinsley. It is ninety-five miles long,
forty-five feet wide, and twelve feet deep. The main ditch is now
completed, and they are at work on the side ditches. It has a
capacity to carry water for one-half million acres.
METHOD OF IRRIGATING.
"They have seven ditch-ploughs, which are quite a contrivance.
The plough is set in a heavy frame, and throws the dirt on a heavy
canvas, twenty-two feet long, which can be set at any angle, and
thus carry the dirt from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the
embankment. It is propelled by twelve horses, — eight in front and
four behind, — and requires three men to operate it — two to drive
and one to attend to the machinery. Each plough costs one thousand
dollars. There are eight hundred thousand dollars in stock in the
company now, and Dr. Soule, the proprietor of Hop Bitters, is ad-
vancing most of the capital. He is said to be worth millions, which
he has made out of the above-mentioned medicine ; so that if the
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE. 705
ditch proves a success, as it probably will, it may be truthfully said
that Southwestern Kansas is irrigated with Hop Bitters."
"The method of applying water to fields is illustrated by the
above sketch, showing the main canal, the lateral taken out of it, and
the small distributing laterals running through the various fields.
This is the flooding system, which is generally practised by Colorado
farmers. The distributing laterals are simply cut by a hoe or spade,
and the water allowed to flow out and spread over the surface as far
as it will go and sink as deep as may be necessary to give the required
moisture to the roots of the growing grain. It will be seen that one
man can look after the distribution of water over a large area by this
crude but effectual method^ since the main lateral is sufficiently large
to supply a number of distributing ones that directly reach the grow-
ing grain, which is generally sown in drills. When the field is suffi-
ciently watered the cuts are closed up by throwing a shovelful of dirt
against the gap, and the water allowed to flow to a different part of
the field ; and so on, until the whole field is irrigated.
''There is another method, used when corn or potatoes or other
crops are growing ; it is called the furrow method, the water follow-
ing the hollow between the rows made by throwing the soil on either
side with a shovel-plough. The water seeps down and sideways,
readily reaching the roots to be benefited by it. This method is also
adopted in orchards and vineyards, as well as small fruit gardens."
We have spoken of San Luis Park, and its deep, rich soil. The
State Land, No. 2, Canal Company has opened one hundred twenty-
five thousand acres of land in that park by bringing it under irriga-
tion. The following picture shows the headgate.
Other irrigating companies bring other thousands of acres of land
in this wonderful park into the market. Farmers can purchase the
best of land here, as much or little as they want, at very low figures,
all well-watered, and waiting "to be tickled with a hoe."
Colorado has more than one thousand miles of irrigating canals
and ditches, which can water well one million five hundred thousand
acres. These lands can be purchased for from one dollar twenty-five
cents to two dollars fifty cents per acre, the latter being the Govern-
ment price for lands where there is a railroad land grant. The large
canal corporations of the State control three hundred thousand acres
which they offer for sale at from four to fifteen dollars per acre
according to location.
The rainfall in Colorado is about fourteen inches for the year,
which is insufficient, of course, for agricultural purposes. For expe-
706 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
rience has proved that the amount of water necessary during the
cropping season when irrigation is required, is equivalent to thirty
inches deep upon the land if it were applied all at once ; or that one
cubic foot per second flowing night and day for one hundred days
will irrigate eighty acres of land. Moreover, this water from the
mountains contains a natural fertilizer peculiar to itself, which con-
stantly enriches the soil.
The two large irrigating companies of Colorado are the Loan and
Trust Company, and the Platte Land Company. The first has con-
structed ten large canals, — one of them, the Del Norte, the largest
in the world. The principal canal is one hundred feet wide, and has
fifty-six miles of constructed channel, and ninety miles of the Sag-
HEADGATE.
wache branch canal included. It delivers two thousand five hundred
cubic feet of water per second, or one billion six hundred twenty
million gallons every twenty-four hours. There were one million
seven hundred fifty thousand cubic yards of gravel, rock, and earth
excavated from the channel, requiring an army of three thousand five
hundred men and two thousand teams to perform the great work.
The largest canal in Italy — the Naviglio Grande — is but half as
large as the Del Norte, and cost twelve million dollars.
The '' Big Greeley Ditch," as it is called, is on the north side of
the Cache la Poudre River. It is thirty-six miles long, with three
to three and one-half feet depth of water, and is twenty-five feet wide
on the bottom at its head, diminishing to fifteen feet at Greeley.
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE. 707
Its fall is from two and a half to three and a half feet per mile. The
cost of this irrigating canal was sixty-six thousand dollars. Another
ditch, on the south of the river, is eleven miles long, and twelve feet
wide at the bottom, with two and one-half feet depth of water.
Tree-culture increases rapidly in California and other parts of the
New West, by irrigation ; and its profits, as we have seen, are some-
what marvellous. The next illustration shows the process of irri-
gating trees, which is usually done but three or four times during
the season. Rev. Robert Strong, of Westminster, Cal., gathered
eight hundred pounds of apples from one Rhode Island Greening
tree, which he sold for sixteen dollars. One ranch in Los Angeles
County has sixteen thousand orange and lemon trees, two thousand
pomegranates, three thousand English walnut, five thousand almond,
three thousand peach, four thousand pear, two thousand apricot, one
thousand fig, with twelve hundred acres in grape-vines, — all under
a complete system of irrigation.
A new method of irrigation has been introduced into Southern
California, called " underground irrigation." A writer describes it
as follows : —
'' We have spoken now only of surface irrigation. Where water
is scarce, as in some of the extreme southern counties, or where there
is more good land than can be well irrigated from the streams by
surface irrigation, a system of underground irrigation has been
adopted.
" It should perhaps be explained, for the benefit of those who have
always lived in a wet country, that when water is run over the soil
under a very dry atmosphere and a cloudless sky, evaporation is very
great ; so great, indeed, that when water is scarce it becomes an
object to prevent this evaporation, and thus secure all the benefit
of all the water for the use of the growing crop.
" To meet this want an underground system of irrigation by per-
forated pipes has been invented and put in use, and is proving of
imm.ense benefit. The pipe is now generally made of concrete. The
ditches are dug (say) fifteen to twenty feet apart over the field, or in
the middle of the space between the rows of trees in an orchard, and
by a machine having a feeding hopper, the concrete, ready mixed, is
fed into the hopper, and the machine converts it into the required
size pipe, and at the same time moves along in the ditch, leaving the
pipe behind it. The same machinery perforates the pipe, so that
the water is let out of it in quantities required, the pipe being from
one and a half to three feet below the surface.
7o8
MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
MARVELS OF AGRICULTURE. 709
The cost of irrigation and amount of water necessary to be applied
to an acre depends upon the method by which water is appHed (four
methods are used in the New West), the nature of the soil, and the
kind of crop. The cost of water per acre in Colorado, by flooding,
is from a dollar and a half to three dollars per acre.
The check system prevails in California and New Mexico in
applying water, and a cubic foot of water is made to irrigate seventy
acres, while by flooding, a cubic foot of water will irrigate but sixty
acres. By the check system the land is divided into squares by
ridges, into one of which the water is admitted and allowed to run
until it is completely covered. Then the water is conducted into the
adjoining square by cutting a small channel through the ridge. This
system requires some labor, but decided economy in the use of water
is gained.
Artesian wells have served a good purpose in irrigating the land,
not only in California, but in other parts of the New West, also.
In 1882 twelve artesian wells were sunk in Tulare County, Cal.,
resulting in a complete revolution in agriculture. These wells flowed
nearly one million five hundred thousand gallons daily ; and the
■desert lands were converted into wheat-fields, vineyards, and orchards
of wonderful thrift. Similar wells with similar results have been
multiplied in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada.
We add only the following facts concerning irrigation in Western
Kansas : —
'* Now, a word or two as to what has been done. Last year one
farmer sold one thousand three hundred dollars' worth of onions and-
sweet potatoes from four acres. He irrigated the ground four times.
Another man harvested ten acres of oats, which he irrigated three
times. He got an average of a little over sixty bushels per acre,
weighing forty pounds to the bushel. Another farmer had in eight
acres of oats ; watered six acres three times and the other two acres
not at all, and got an average of sixty-six bushels to the acre. One
man raised five hundred bushels of onions on one and one-sixteenth
acres. Still another harvested nine tons per acre from five acres of
alfalfa, cutting it three times during the summer. The last cutting
was after the grass had gone to seed. It yielded twenty-one bushels
of seed per acre. Two miles west of town. Squire Worrel has a fine
orchard. Other farmers have done well with fruit. From such
figures the reader may get some idea of what can be accomplished
by irrigation."
7IO MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
CONCLUSION.
We have caught a glimpse of the New West. Compared with
the aggregate reahties of the wonderful regions, it is only a glimpse.
We have seen enough, however, to satisfy us that it is a veritable
"Wonderland," as crowded with opportunities as it is with mar-
vels. Men live rapidly here — a whole month in one day, a whole
year in a month. Some have lived a hundred years in the twenty-
five or thirty they have spent here. They have seen an empire rise
and grow rich and powerful in that time. The changes wrought
under their own eyes have been almost as startling as transforma-
tions under the wand of a magician, — such strides of progress as
usually exist only in dreams. It seems as if God had concentrated
His wisdom and power upon this part of our country, to make it His
crowning work of modern civilization on this Western Continent.
For its history is Providence illustrated, — God in the affairs of men
to exhibit the grandeur of human enterprise and the glory of human
achievement.
When sojourning on the Pacific Slope, bewildered by its marvels,
the question arose, Why did the settlement of our country begin in
the East instead of in the West } Why did the "■ Pilgrim Fathers "
land on the coast of New England instead of the coast of California >
Why seek their fortunes among the rocks of Plymouth instead of the
gold mines of the Pacific coast t The same hand that guided them to
the ** rock-bound shores" of the Atlantic might have led them to the
*' gold-fretted shores " of the Pacific. There is no solution to the
problem except in the wonder-working Providence of God. On this
continent was to be built up the largest, richest, most intelligent, and
powerful Christian nation on earth. A fearless, self-sacrificing, intel-
ligent, hardy Christian race, disciplined by perils and hardships inde-
scribable, could alone lay the foundations and work out the grand
problem. Hence, rocks were better for them than nuggets of gold.
A soil that would yield bread enough to keep the wolf of hunger
from the door only by constant "sweat of the brow " was indispensa-
ble, rather than a soil that would yield the necessaries of life and
luxuries of the tropics in profusion, with little care and labor. Noth-
ing but hunger and nakedness forced them to plunge still further into
the wilderness, as the population increased, at the risk of being
devoured by wild beasts or slain by savages. Beset with troubles
on every side, and harassed by dangers that required the stoutest
courage to meet, the higher and noble attributes of humanity were
CONCLUSION'. 711
forced to the front, as, from generation to generation, " westward the
star of empire took its way."
Had the Pilgrims landed at San Francisco instead of Plymouth,
and the treasure-vaults of California been opened by their enterprise,
as they opened to their descendants in 1848, doubtless the race would
have been enervated by the luxury, extravagance, and ease which
usually succeed sudden transition from poverty to wealth. Finding
a rich soil that yielded sixty and a hundred fold with a quarter part
of the labor required to secure a scanty subsistence on the coast of
New England, the goading incentive to work or starve would have
been removed, followed by idleness, prodigality, and effeminacy.
Not being forced to push out into the wilderness, further and further,
to obtain the means of living, it is doubtful if New England would
have been settled to-day. For, with every factor in the problem of
creating and building up a great Christian nation, beginning at the
East, favoring the purpose, generations lived and died before the
occupation of the New West was thought to be possible ; and not
until within forty years did the children of the Pilgrim Fathers set
themselves to work to complete their empire by transforming the
Western wilderness into a capstone of gold.
Reverse the opportunity ; begin the experiment at the West in-
stead of the East ; supply gold for granite, and a rich for a barren
soil ; let plenty take the place of poverty, and men command the
means of a livelihood without stress of plan or labor ; and what rea-
son have we to believe that they would have left the Eldorado dis-
covered, and penetrated the wilderness, crossing the Missouri and
Mississippi rivers and the " Great Lakes," felling vast forests, build-
ing towns and cities by Herculean labors, and finally reaching the
Atlantic coast to make the New England of to-day } Such a result
is not supposable. All the conditions indicate that in the Divine
Plan it was absolutely necessary to lay the foundations in granite
that the superstructure might be finished in gold. Neither science,
art, learning, or religion were competent to handle such marvellous
wealth as lay concealed within the domain of the New West. When
"the fulness of time" came, religion and learning, science and art,
commerce and enterprise, had multiplied their institutions and power
so wonderfully, that they could employ the millions and billions of
wealth marvellously evolved to lift up humanity, and contribute to
the more rapid growth of a model Christian civilization. Such a use
of treasure was impossible two hundred years ago.
Andrew Carnegie, a native of Great Britain, but an adopted son
712 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
of the United States, opens his very able and valuable work, ''Tri-
umphant Democracy," with the following paragraph : —
" The old nations of the earth creep on at a snail's pace ; the
Republic thunders past with the rush of the express. The United
States, the growth of a single century, has already reached the fore-
most rank among nations, and is destined soon to out-distance all
others in the race. In population, in wealth, in annual saving, and
in public credit, in freedom from debt, in agriculture, and in manufac-
tures, America already leads the civilized world.
" France, with her fertile plains and sunny skies, requires a hun-
dred and sixty years to grow two Frenchmen where one grew before.
Great Britain, whose rate of increase is greater than that of any other
European nation, takes seventy years to double her population. The
Republic has repeatedly doubled hers in twenty-five years."
He closes his remarkable volume by the following statements
among many others : —
"The wealthiest nation in the world."
"The nation first in public credit and in payment of debt."
"The greatest agricultural nation in the world."
"The greatest mining nation in the world."
But the New West has made this result possible. Its mines, farms,
flocks, and herds, and exceptionable enterprise contribute enough to
the Republic's grand total of possessions to make these statements
indisputable. The United States incurred a debt of three billion
dollars in self-defence against the slaveholders' rebellion, and the riches
of the New West has enabled the government to liquidate more than
half of it already ; and the time is near when the last dollar of it will
be paid because of the great wealth that is stored in Western vaults.
Devote to the liquidation of the national debt the annual product of
the mines between the Missouri River and the Pacific coast, and in
less than ten years the debt would be extinguished. Or, devote the
vast annual income of the cattle-ranches, which cover so large a por-
tion of this great domain, to the same purpose, and in an equally
brief period our national liabilities would wholly disappear. Or,
annually appropriate the aggregate profits of agriculture and com-
merce within this large and booming territory to the removal of this
burden of indebtedness, and in less time than we have named the
nation would witness its extinguishment, and celebrate the occasion
with bonfires and illuminations.
The author of " Triumphant Democracy " says, again : " Why does
the credit of this new Republic stand higher than that of old England t
CONCLUSION, 713
Why would the world lend this young Democracy more money and
upon better terms than it would lend the old monarchy ? Why does
the world pay for American three per cents more than it will pay for
the British three per cents ? The answer is obvious. Because the
reign of the whole of the people of a state is more secure than the
reign of any class in a state can possibly be. A class may be upset,
nay, is sure to be sooner or later ; the people are forever and ever in
power."
Then the writer goes on to multiply telling facts, and finally
adds : '' The answer to doubters of the stability of Democracy, like
Sir Henry Maine, is here: December, 1885, —
''Republican three per cents, 103-J.
*' Monarchial three per cents, 99^.
"Were the consuls of America perpetual, like those of Britain,
and not redeemable at a fixed date, their value would be still higher.
" It has been the boast, one of the many proud boasts, of the
parent land, that her institutions were stable as the rock, as proved
by her consuls, which stood pre-eminent throughout the world. Now
comes her Republican child, and plucks from her queenly head the
golden round of public credit as hers of right, and places it upon her
own fair brow. It has been my privilege to claim victories for tri-
umphant Democracy, but surely the world will join me in saying
none is more surprising than this, that its public credit stands before
that of Great Britain and first in all the world."
This is a flattering tribute to our country, of which the New
West may not be diffident to claim its share. For this remarkable
consummation of public affairs, especially the financial triumphs,
could not have been reached in the present century but for the set-
tlement and development of this marvellous country. And still
more in the future than in the past, will the expanding resources of
the New West exalt the national credit, until the Republic shall be
as widely known for its population of a thousand millions as for its
fabulous wealth.
These facts indicate that the New West will decide the destiny of
our land, and that, too, on the line of unparallelled growth and pros-
perity. Perils beset this portion of our country, it is true, perils of
such fearful magnitude as to awaken alarm ; but this is God's battle,
in which "one will chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to
flight." But for this unassailable truth the Republic would not
stand at the head of nations in wealth and population, or anything
else, to-day. From the outset this is what the world has witnessed
714 MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST.
on this Western Continent, — "■ two putting ten thousand to flight."
And this must continue, if the Divine Plan is to build up a mighty
Christian nation here, until the Republic stands complete in its
beauty and glory. If the New West shall fail of the achievements
predicted, the Republic will fail to maintain its advanced rank among
the nations ; and if the Republic fails, mankind will fail also. The
prediction that the unprecedented mixture of nationalities in the New
West will compromise, and possibly destroy, its noblest institutions,
will not be fulfilled, since the manifest drift of affairs is to the absorp-
tion of all other races by the Anglo-Saxons, who now control the
destiny of the human family. This English-speaking portion of man-
kind never even nods to foreign tongues, but the latter are con-
stantly being absorbed by the former. We have an amusing jargon
of languages now ; but the time is coming when the French, Ger-
man, Irish, Spanish, and every other nationality will join our Eng-
lish-speaking people, and we shall have but one tongue spoken from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Lakes to the Gulf. Besides,
the representatives of these many nations in the New West are the
most intelligent, enterprising, and industrious of their countrymen.
Comparatively few tramps and worthless characters are among them.
The mass of them emigrate thither for homes and a livelihood, and
multitudes become farmers, scattered over the States and Territories
under circumstances peculiarly favorable to the development of good
citizenship. Nor can we disprove Herbert Spencer's prediction that
this conglomeration of races will result in a higher type of manhood
than now appears upon the continent. Mr. Spencer says : —
** From biological truths it may be inferred that the eventual mix-
ture of the allied varieties of the Aryan race forming the population
will produce a finer type of man than has hitherto existed, and a type
of man more plastic, more adaptable, more capable of undergoing the
modifications needful for complete social life. I think that, whatever
difficulties they may have to surmount, and whatever tribulations
they may have to pass through, the Americans may reasonably look
forward to a time when they will have produced a civilization grander
than any the world has known." Our hope and expectation is that
Herbert Spencer will turn out a true prophet.
The liquor traffic is the prolific cause of evil in the New West,
as it is in the East ; and yet, in its centres of population, it is
divested of some of the frightful characteristics which make it so
horrible to contemplate in Boston, New York, Cincinnati, Chicago,
and St. Louis. The intelligence, enterprise, and Christian principle
CONCLUSION. 715
there are opposed to the traffic. Already Kansas has led the way to
a Constitutional Amendment, forever prohibiting the manufacture
and sale of intoxicating beverages within its limits, and the States of
the East are fast copying its example. So that, in the solution of
the liquor problem, it appears to many that deliverance for the East
is to come from the New West. The very favorable results of the
experiment in Kansas, ridding the commonwealth of the most dan-
gerous class of citizens, inviting a better and nobler class of immi-
grants to settle there, where the curse of the traffic does not rest as
a pall upon every industry, increasing population, wealth, and busi-
ness to an unprecedented degree, will demonstrate to every State
and Territory further west the practicability and absolute necessity
of stamping out a trade that is ''the dynamite of modern civiliza-
tion." It is probable that, earlier than in many parts of the East,
the New West will put the liquor traffic under the ban of prohibitive
legislation, thereby removing one of the greatest barriers to its thrift
and triumph.
Mammonism, Mcrmonism, Socialism, Skepticism, and Atheism are
mighty obstacles to the rise and progress of our Western domain ;
but the holy trinity of Liberty, Education, and Christianity, in which
the Anglo-Saxon race believe, will prove more than a match for them
all in the future conflict for supremacy. This race has laid the foun-
dation of our Western empire, and started it off in a career of unex-
ampled prosperity ; and its grip upon the masses will not be relaxed
as the battle for unity and right waxes hotter; but will rather tighten
its hold and increase its power, until language, custom, and purpose
are one, under the control of Liberty, Education, and Religion. An
Englishman says, '' Every one is looking forward with eager and im-
patient expectation to that destined moment when America will give
law to the rest of the world." This consummation will be realized
when Anglo-Saxon supremacy over the New West shall bring its
multiform elements into complete accord for the Union, and the
Christian Religion shall control the whole for Humanity and God.
AGENTS WANTED.
Intelligent, active Agents; Teachers, Students, Clergymen,
Professional Men, Young Men from the Country,
wanted to canvass for the following unrivalled,
Standard Publications: —
TWENTY YEARS OF CONGRESS,
FROM LINCOLN TO GARFIELD.
Illustrated with Fifty-Seven Fine Steel l*ovt raits.
By Hon. JAMES G. BLAINE, Secretary of State.
The most valuable and popular book of the day. A complete, accurate, and
matchless history of our government from 1861 to 1881.
POLITICAL DISCUSSIONS:
LEGISLATIVE, DIPLOMATIC, AND POPULAR.
By Hon. JAMES G. BLAL\E, Secretary of State.
This book contains the principal speeches of Mr. Blaine from the time he en-
tered public life in 1856, and embodies his grand arguments on all the leading
questions of the time, as well as the great questions which are uppermost with the
American people to-day ; and also includes his diplomatic papers while Secretary of
State under President Garfield.
.,,..^.x^^x-<^N^-^>^N^^\\^ JUSX ISSUED : .x\>.\vvvv^vv^nx^x.^.v^.^..
Testimony of Nineteen Centuries to Jesus of Nazareth.
By JAMES HERMAN WHITMORE, LL.B., author of the "Doctrine of Immortality," etc.
An unrivalled collection of rare and remarkable tributes which have been paid
to the life, character, and spiritual influence of the Founder of Christianity by more
than three hundred eminent scholars, statesmen, philosophers, and divines. Care-
fully compiled, without sectarian bias, from the Christian literatures of Europe and
America.
Canvassers desiring- a relig-ious "work -will find this to be a very timely
and valuable book.
The above are all first-class, standard publications of rare merit and value, and
the best selling subscription books published. For circulars, terms, etc., apply to
the publishers,
THE HENRY BILL PUBLISHING CO., Norwich, Conn.
Live Music
Archive
Librivox
Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland
Museum of Art
Internet
Arcade
Console Living Room
Open Library
American
Libraries
TV News
Understanding
9/11